Thus The EDF Deployed There
by EclipsePheniox
Summary: 10 years after the Aggressors left earth, peace rained until a Gate appears in Ginza Japan. Now the Earth Defence Force mounts an invasion to the Special region. How will the Empire respond to a military that has face giant bugs and other terrors? Would you like to know more?
1. Chapter 1

**Side note, I'm going to be using a mix of the mainline games with inspiration insect Armageddon and Iron rain. **

In 2010 a signal was received from outer space indicating the presence of intelligent life. This caused a flood of activity across the world. Later that year most of the major nations of the world signed the Defence act. This act soon leads to the creation of the multinational organisation known as the Earth Defence Force, or EDF.

On 2nd of March 2017 Alien ships arrived over several major cities on earth. But their response, wasn't peaceful. With the use of giant bugs and machines, the Aggressors attacked and the EDF was deployed.

Despite massive casualties, in 2019 the aggressors were forced off the planet. The EDF won, but people knew that they would be back. Using alien tech, the EDF became to most technologically advanced military on earth. This lead calls for the EDF to be disbanded, but the Defence act prevented this.

After bitter arguments several nations left the Defence act, but the members of those respective nations in the EDF refused to leave. This led to the Defence war, a short war in which the nations who left lost and were forced back into the fold. After the war, all nations were then forced to relinquish their armies to the EDF with only a defence military allowed.

In 2028 the Aggressors attacked once again. This time the EDF couldn't hold for long and was forced to fall back to major cities. This led to a 7-year defensive war which ended in 2035 with the destruction of the giga-creature Raznid and EDF victory.

2045 the Gate appears.

OOOOO

Ginza was busier than normal as two main events were taking place. The first was a manga festival, but the second was an open concert done by the Jet Angels. The Jet angels were a 7-woman idol pop group with each member coming from different nations. Each one wore a jet gear, a jetpack that allowed them to fly though the air like their name suggests. Unlike other idol groups however, these girls were combat experienced soldiers of the EDF.

Ever since the aggressors were destroyed several years ago and the world began to rebuild, the EDF were considered to be heroes. While people liked this, others wanted to do more. Thus, the Jet Angels were born, part propaganda tool, part moral booster, they played for soldiers to raise spirits. Each member was from one of the major EDF nations with their outfits mirroring their nation of origin flag.

But the idol group wasn't of interest to Yoji Itami. The otaku was more interested in the manga festival as he made his way to the location. But he was so caught up with what he was going to buy, he hit a pillar. People began to crowd him as the man moaned while the red mark on his face pulsed.

"Owww," he moaned.

Little did he know what this was only the beginning of something that would change the world.

OOOOO

In the middle of Ginza something began to form. A multi-coloured shimmer of light began to take shape getting peoples attention. Soon it began to take shape and form into a roman like structure. White marble with a black entrance that had no back to it. Looking on people around began to take out their phones and take pictures of the strange structure. But as they did this, glowing red dots began to appear from the blackness of the building. Moments later pigmen, orcs and more emerged from the building charging in killing all in their sight. People ran and screamed in panic.

Not long after the demi-humans emerged soldiers dressed in roman like armour emerged. More disciplined than the demi-humans they marched out in disciplined ranks with the cavalry lead by General Errus Kai, the leader of the army. As he emerged, he was blinded by the heat and the sun. His eyes soon adjusted as did his fellow commanders. Their sight then soon fell on the buildings that dwarfed them. His mind spun as he gazed upon the buildings of glass and steel in awe.

"Amazing," one of his fellow generals said as he looked up as well. "They must have some form of master builders to make these marvels,"

"We will make them our own for the Empire," said another.

"Indeed, we will," Errus said before he drew his sword. "Charge!" he yelled and the imperial army marched into this new land capturing and slaughtering all in their way.

As they ventured into this new land, they soon began to surround a black and white caste of strange architecture. But it was to be expected given what they had seen in this strange world. The enemy had barricaded the walls to the castle so two orcs moved up to try and smash the main gate down. But before they could reach it a lone man laned in front of them. He was short with dark skin and a wide brim hat which was tilted slightly to one side.

In his hands were a pair of curved blades. Small, but they looked deadly. He also wore a green uniform with some form of strange armour that looked like little more than blocks on his limbs. There was some sniggering with the soldiers as the one lone soldier just stood there ready to attack. The orcs smiled and brought their hammers up ready to take this small soldier down.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" the soldier then yelled before jumping higher then seemed possible.

Suddenly he then sped forward and beheaded the tall orc before turning to the next one. This one managed to try and hit the soldier but again he moved with almost superhuman speed out of the way towards the orc. He then stabbed his knife into the belly of the orc before jumping bisecting the orc killing it as its organs fell out. The soldier then landed in front of the gate.

"You shall no pass," he said but the language was strange to the general, consequently he didn't understand what the man said.

But the actions of the man made the General pause. How could such a small man take down orcs three or four times his size? Just then more soldiers joined him, not as small as the first man but each one wore a similar uniform and armour. They were also equipped with a large slab like shied that look to heavy for them to carry. The weapons too also looked too heavy too normally carry.

His eyes narrowed at the warriors in front of him. "Advance!" he yelled and the demi-humans were the first to walk up.

But they didn't get far. Several of the enemy warriors had gigantic hammers they when brought down it let out some form of shockwave then sent the demi humans flying. The enemy then advanced with their shields up. Despite the superior numbers of the demi-humans the enemy advanced, pushing them back before binging their weapons down and sending more demi humans flying or crushing them. The force the general began to back up in fear as the enemy advanced more and more.

Before they could do anything, else loud noises made the Imperial soldiers look up. Several lying machines moved across the sky taking out the wyvern knights with little difficulty. More nose, this one sounded like roars of animals. He turned to look down to see blue metal animals of some kind move up close to them. Before he could do anything, sounds of thunder and fire echoed from them taking out the demi-humans and his soldiers. It was then he knew, they picked the wrong enemy to fight.

OOOOO

News of the attack in Ginza spread far and wide making people panic and worried if this was another aggressor attack. But those fears were quickly used by the UNEDF secretary general. A news conference was quickly set up in Japan by the General. Takuma Yagami walked out onto the stage and onto the podium. As he did flashes of camera's sounded making him bink slightly before he spoke.

"The battle in Ginza was a tragedy that no one could have predicted. However, it is clear that this attack was not done by the aggressors," he said with a clear air of authority. "We have not detected any kind of energy gem or aggressor signals with the enemy forces. We are dealing with an attack from an unidentified hostile nation," someone then spoke up.

"General," someone spoke with a thick American accent. "What does this mean for the EDF?"

"There has been some debate about how to deal with this," Takuma admitted. "The EDF is meant to protect the lives of humanity, not destroy it. However, given that this army is not terrestrial in origin it has been agreed that a small force will venture into the Gate and find those responsible and make them pay for the damage they have done. This has been backed by 75% of the UN council,"

"Have you thought about destroying the gate?" another reporter asked.

"We have indeed, but we have decided against it," Takuma said. "If we destroy this gate there is no guarantee that we will remain protected from another attack, for all we know another gate could appear in America or Europe or someplace where the enemy can fortify. The risks of destroying the gate are too high,"

As more questions were asked Lieutenant Yoji Itami sighed and turned off the tv moaning as he fell onto the bed looking up at the ceiling.

"Why did they have to close the convention early?" he moaned.

OOOOO

The EDF canteen was full of soldiers. The news that they were going into the newly dubbed Special Region had filtered down to them. So, they were preparing as best they can. The newly promoted 2nd Lieutenant Itami sat just playing with his food depressed at the cancelation of the exhibit. Something he wasn't happy about even with the promotion.

He didn't care about being a hero, all he cared was saving people and his hobby. But despite what he did the event close before he had a chance to get there. The depression set in as he just looked at his food and a Sargent walked up to him.

"Hey your Yoji Itami, aren't you?" he asked. "The Hero of Ginza. I'm Takeo, I'm just transferred her from Nagoya base. Man, it's such an honour meeting the you for the first time. What's it like being the hero? I bet women faun over you,"

That hit a nerve. "Shut up," Itami moaned. "I'm annoyed. The sale and exhibition ended up getting cancelled, and after it happens, I don't even get weekends off,"

"You were given a commission by the Councillor, and even got promotion. Kama is going to kick your ass for complaining," Takeo shot back.

"It's not like I wanted to get promoted," the LT muttered.

"Jezz you have no ambition at all, do you?"

"Look I work to support my hobby. So, if you had me choosing between my job and hobby, I'd give my hobby priority, without question,"

Takeo frowned at his commanding officer before smiling. "Hey by the way Itami, I've kept it a secret until now. But I was at the sale and the exhibit that day,"

Itami just recoiled in jealously as he looked at the Sargent. "You were?" he practically yelled.

"I wasn't able to do anything," Takeo admitted. "I couldn't bring myself to say…" but the LT didn't like that.

"So, what about the loot? What did you get?" he then grabbed Takeo. "Wanna come to my place tonight?"

This wasn't a conversation; this was an interrogation.

OOOOO 3 months later.

8000 soldiers along with tanks, troop carriers, and more stood at the closed off section to the Gate. Each one ready to move out at a moment's notice. The UN had prepared this for the past few months, now they were ready. 4000 troops from the EDF Asian divisions, mostly from Japan and the rest were either from Europe or America with a few from Australia, Africa and South America. This force was known as the 'Special Region Task Force'. The vanguard into the special region.

As they waited to move, General Hazuma stood before them. The veteran of the Aggressor war stood tall and proud among the others.

"I'm General Hazuma!" he yelled. "Your commander for this mission! Many scouts have entered though the past in the past month, but nobody knows what will happen to us in the special region. Thus, you must be ready for combat as soon as we cross the Gate,"

As he spoke, Itami noticed a girl and mother standing in front of a row of flowers. It was clear that they were grieving. He bowed his head slightly in response.

"We will be going though momentarily!" Hazuma yelled.

At that everyone loaded their weapons and climbed into their vehicles, as they did tank engines roared into life.

"We will show the enemy what they have brought upon themselves. We faced down the Aggressors, we destroyed Raznid!" he declared. "We'll show them what the Earth Defence Force is made of! EDF!"

"EDF," the soldiers yelled. "EDF, EDF!"

"Roll out!" Hazuma yelled.

EDF Special Region equipment:

EDF uniform:

It looks like the uniform from Starship troopers, but olive green with the armour having pouches on the chest and the PA gear from Iron rain.

PA gear:

PA gear, or personal armour is an exoframe that is designed to enhance the soldiers speed, strength and stamina. Highly modular, the frame is standard issue for all EDF soldiers regardless of rank and position.

Trooper:

The basic of the EDF, the trooper is a highly trained soldier of the EDF.

Heavy trooper:

Unlike the normal trooper, the heavy trooper is as the name describes. Their PA gear is equipped with heavy armour slabs that double as jets to support the frame when landing or boosting. A notable difference is that the power pack of the frame can allow for dual wield weapons as well as shoulder mounted weapons. Outside of vehicles, heavy troopers are the only ones who can use weapons such as cannons.

Jet Trooper:

The lightest of the classes, the jet trooper is equipped with a jetpack and stabilizers that allow the trooper to fly with ease. However due to this they cannot weald heavy weapons. Instead they tend to use energy weapons or sub machine guns.

Type 2040 Anteater AR:

The standard weapon of the EDF, the anteater was made in response to the aggressor threat. A high calibre weapon with a high rate of fire, the Anteater is the workhouse and favourite of the EDF. It looks like the starship troopers morita rifle from the movie but not as long. Something similar to what Razack has.

Type 2039 Gorilla MBT:

Modelled after the Abrams tank, the Gorilla is the primary battle tank of the EDF forces. Despite having only, a 4-man crew, one 110mm gun and a top speed of 40kph the Gorilla has proven itself to be a reliable tank.

Mark 4 Kuratas:

Based off the Kuratas design from 2012, the mech was designed as a squad support weapon. But due to the effectiveness of it against the Aggressors, divisions of mechs were created. The Mark 4 is the result of years of trial and error. Standing 5.5 meters high, the MK 4 is a highly modular weapons platform with hard points on its shoulders for weapon placements. As standard, the MK4 has an armblade on both arms and a twin 5.56 short barrelled chain gun on its right arm. It also carries a 60mm autocannon, but this can be swapped out with a chaingun or other heavy weapons.

It's legs also support tacks which allowed he mech to move even if its legs are damaged. This also allows it to keep up with other forces.

Type 3 Megalodon Rail tank:

Twice the size of the Gorilla, the Megalodon is equipped with a Railgun that can punch though anything. Slow and hard to manufacture, the Megalodon is mostly used as an artillery unit and not as a proper tank.

Type 37 Raven:

Based off the Bradley IFV, the Raven is a multipurpose platform. It's turret can either be equipped for an anti-air role or transport role.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry about some lack of detail and jumping, trying to covert a visual medium to a written one is not easy. **

The Imperial capital of Sadera was full of activity as the citizens of the Falmar Empire went about their business. But the majority of the drama was happening at the Imperial senate. With what happened at the Gate at Alnus hill, there was a lot of activity. No one in the Empire would think that their army would have been decimated by anyone. But after the army they sent failed to report back, that illusion was shattered. Now the senate was debating what to do next.

Emperor Molt just sat on his throne while he listened the people around him.

"It was an embarrassment your majesty," Marquess Casel said standing in the middle of the senate building. "We lost 60% of the empires military might," as he said the mumblings of the rest of the senate about this. "What would you have us do? How would you guide the state?"

"Marquess Casel, think about how the people must feel," Molt said. "It is true our latest losses cost us our military advantage," he covered his face in mock embarrassment. "They worry that vassals of our state and others may revolt and attack the Imperial capitol itself. How pathetic," he said removing his hand from his face.

Casel just gasped at that.

"Every time our empire is in danger…" he continued. "…the Emperor, the senate and the people become one to confront the danger, and bring about even more progress. No war is won without some loss. Therefore, I will not hold anyone responsible for our recent losses. To think that another nation dares surround the Imperial city… I trust none of you will waste time in court,"

That got even more commotion from the other senators as Molt undressed Casel with words.

"To pass over all responsibility…." Casel muttered.

"But what shall we do?" a senator asked as he walked up next to Casel. "The army we sent was defeated in just two days. And now the gate has been captured, and the enemy has begun setting up a base on this side," Molt leaned back with concern. "Of course, we'll attempt to take the hill back as well. But the enemies in the distance…" the senator paused as he recalled the strange weapons used. "I have never seen such sorcery,"

"We ought to fight them!" another senator declared. "If we do not have enough men, we need only recruit them from our tributaries," he demanded. "Attack the other side of the Gate once more!"

"What good would brute force alone do?" asked another.

"It'll be another Godasen," added another, but at that erupted in arguments.

After a few moments Molt raised his hand quietening the room. "I do not wish to sit idly by. Therefore, we must fight," that shocked everyone. "Send delegates to our tributaries and neighbouring states. Ask for help in defending the continent against these men from another world," he stood. "We will lead the allied army of Godu Rino Gwaban in an attack on Alnus hill,"

"For emperor Molt!" the senate declared.

Sighing Casel walked up to Molt. "You Majesty, it will be a bloodbath," he said darkly but Molt only smiled as if he was expecting that.

OOOOO

King Duran, deciding to take in the scenery, split away from his main formation and looked from a hillside at the mountains in the distance. The serene imagery felt nice, given that he was going to war he decided that taking in some sites before going to battle would have been nice for his perspective. But this was broken as one of his fellow generals rode up next him.

"Your Majesty," he said pointing at a nearby hill. "We've spotted a number of enemy scouts, two hills ahead"

"Leave them be for now," Duran said as he directed his horse back to the main force and rode off. "We must hurry to meet the kings,"

It took a few hours to get to the main encampment. But after arriving and setting up, night was slowly falling as Duran met with the other kings. As they planned to attack an officer from the imperial army arrived to deliver a message. That message shocked the kings who had assembled there.

"The Imperial army commander isn't coming?" Duran asked.

"Our army is facing the enemy at Alnus hill as we speak," the messenger said. "The commander cannot leave," that made the kings look to each other.

"That makes no sense," Duran then spoke. "My scouts only reported a modest number of enemy soldiers," something about that rubbed him the wrong way.

He, like the others had heard about the Imperial forces where decimated by this enemy. But how could they with such a small number? Something didn't add up.

"Sir Duran," one of the kings said. "The Imperial Army is holding the enemy at bay in our place,"

"Lord Ligu," Duran muttered.

"We would like your armies to attack the enemy at sunrise tomorrow," the messenger added.

"Understood," the king of Alguna said standing up. "My army will take the front line,"

"No mine will," the king of Mudwan shot back.

This just descended into arguments about who will take the front and glory of the battle. Duran just shook his head in response. The young kings wanted the glory. It took a while before a battle plan was set and they settled down. Now they were congratulating each other and who's army would be more superior. But Duran was tempering his expectations. The numbers still didn't add up in his mind, something was off. Something that the Imperial army wasn't telling them.

Standing next to him, Ligu decided to speak up. "Unfortunately, my army could not take the front lines," he admitted.

"There are fewer than 10,000 enemies," Duran said. "Our army is 300,000 men altogether. Do you believe that the only path to glory is to be at the forefront?"

"Then why do you not wish to be at the front?"

"I do not like the look of this battle," Duran admitted which made Ligu chuckle.

"Apparently even Duran, Lion of the Erbe clan, is no match against the march of time,"

"It's not that," the one-eyed king countered. "We have numerical superiority, yet when the first attack on the Gate failed, we took the mantle. The Imperial army is meant to the military might of the continent. Doesn't strike you as odd that once they failed, they requested us?" Ligu gave the king a confused look. "Something doesn't add up here,"

"Now that you say it…" Ligu said thinking. "…it doesn't make sense,"

Duran grunted in acknowledgement. Only tomorrow will he have answers.

As sunrise began the main force of the allied army made their move onto Alnus hill. The king of Alguna lead the attack as Duran emerged from his tent and looked out at the sky.

"The time is ripe to go into battle?" he asked no one in particular.

"Notice!" someone then yelled as a scout approached before getting to one knee in front of his king.

"The Alguna and Mudwan armies, 10,000 in all, have approached the hill," he said. "The army of the Principality of Ligu follows," as he said that there was one army that was absent and didn't escape Duran's notice.

"And the Imperial army?" he asked.

"Well…." the scout hesitated. "There is not a single Imperial soldier near the hill," that just confirmed Duran's worst fears, but it was still of surprise.

"What?" he practically yelled.

As the allied army marched forth Ligu looked around expecting to see some kind of reinforcements from the Imperial army. But there was nothing. It was strange, the Imperial army was one of the best on the continent. So, where were they?

"Why is the Imperial army missing?" he asked looking around.

"I don't know," one of his guards said.

"They couldn't have…." Ligu muttered remembering what Duran had said.

The march of the Allied armies didn't go unnoticed by the enemy. But after the first attack they had put up signposts in the language of the locals to try and deter anyone trying to advance. But that did little to stop the army advancing on them. As the army advanced past the sign's screams sounded making them look up. The ground then shook as an explosion took out a large number of the army.

Several more explosions took out more of the allied armies forces with ease. But the worst thing nothing could stop them. In the back Duran watched as the explosions echoed across the hill. His house bucked slightly in surprise but he managed to calm the beast.

"No…" he muttered. "Is Alnus hill erupting?" he asked.

Gritting his teeth, he and a small number of his men moved faster approaching the hill. As they approached the smoke began to lift allowing them to get a good look over the hill. The site shocked them all. The dead bodies of the Allied amies lay before them. No cuts of swords, or anything like that. But they did see burns from fire and the ground below them was void of any grass. Upon looking at this carnage one of Duran's soldiers looked away trying not to vomit.

"Where is the king of Alguna?" Duran then asked. "Where is the king of Mudwan? Where is Duke Ligu?"

A few hours after the first attack, the Allied forces tried to retake the hill again. This time however, the generals and Kings stayed back to watch as the strange weapons of the enemy took out their forces with little difficulty. The command of the army could only watch as wyverns, soldiers and demi-humans as they fell. Loud explosions and bright coloured lights hit their marks on their forces. Small flying objects in the sky buzzed around wyverns taking them down with ease.

Metal ogres moved across the battlefield crushing the allied soldiers like bugs. This wasn't a battle; it was a massacre. Duran could only grit his teeth as he witnessed this. But then one of the metal beasts turned in his direction. His instincts told hi to me, so he did with the other generals as the beast launched something at them. They managed to get out of the way with ease before an explosion sounded at the location where they once were. After it died, it left something in its wake.

Interested Duran jumped off his horse and walked over to it. A large metal disk was imbedded into the rock making his mind buzz with confusion. How could such a simple thing cause so much damage?

The attack failed, come sunset the last four kings and generals where in the command tent licking their very deep wounds.

"We have less than half of the 100,000 men we set out with!" one of them said.

"How could this happen?" another one added.

"Where is the Imperial army?" another asked. "What are they doing?"

"No, not even the Imperial army could stand a chance against them. Should we not retreat?"

"We cannot run off now," Duran said looking at the disk in the middle of the table before his eyes turned to Ligu's helm.

They had killed his friend and he wanted some payback. "Not before I repaired them with an arrow,"

"But Lord Duran, we have hardly enough might," one of the kings shot.

Before anyone could offer a counter, a scout walked in. "My lords, I have completed my scouting of the enemy base," he said but he didn't look too pleased.

"Speak, what do we face?" Duran asked.

The scout gulped. "I do not believe we can win; they have strange monsters and weapons. And they move faster than any human I have ever seen. I also believe that we are facing a united army as well,"

"What makes you say that?" one of the generals asked concerned.

"I spotted no less than 26 flags," he began to shiver as the kings and generals looked at him with wide eyes. "And I do not think that they are simply nobles. The soldiers on the hill, the enemy, they had the flags on their armour,"

"This complicates matters," Duran muttered. "Perhaps a night raid, tonight is a new moon,"

Later that night what was left of the army made their move onto Alnus hill. The army tried to move up slowly and carefully trying not to make too much noise.

"In this darkness, we should be able to make it to the other side of the hill and ambush the enemy," Duran said as he watched the army moved up.

The officers in the army tried to inform them to keep the noise down as much as possible. But as they got closer than last time lights erupted in the air making their night-adjusted eyes shy away. Duran looked up in shock as blue lights lit up the sky as if it was day.

"NO," Duran yelled before trying to get close. "All men forward! Attack the enemy with all your might!" he yelled as large yellow lights landed nearby exploding.

He tried to get in close but something tripped up his horse, he landed in the dirt as more of the lights appeared above him and his men slaughtered. Thankfully more of his men ran up and pushed the strange fence down to help their king up. But his instincts told him that they were in danger.

"RUN!" he yelled as his men tried to set up a shield wall.

But more lights appeared reding the shields useless. All he could do was watch as the lights danced around him. He walked forward, a man without a purpose before he found a bow and arrow. Remembering his promise, he picked the two up and let the arrow lose before the stress and insanity of this war hit him and he laughed.

OOOOO

The night attack on the base was a failure, just like the past three assaults. It seems that the enemy didn't know when to quit. As the new day rose EDF troopers walked around the battlefield seeing if that there was any wounded that they missed. Despite these feudal soldiers attacking them, they were still human as such the rules of war didn't change. They may have changed during the Aggressor war but when war with humans occurs the Geneva convention sill applied.

Itami and a few others walked around looking at the damage. After years of war with the Aggressors, the scene in front of them was nothing. They had become desensitised to it all. As Itami walked he noticed several vultures picking off what was left of the dead. Looking down the Lieutenant noticed part of a bow. He bent down to pick it up as a south African soldier walked up to him.

"L.T, I heard we killed around 60,000 of them," he said in a thick African accent. "Plus, the 60,000 they sent to Ginza,"

"That's around 120,000," Itami said as he stood. "Around two Attack corps worth of men,"

"You worrying about the enemy?" the solder asked.

"They lost 120,000 men in the span on 3 days. It makes you wonder, what kind of nation are we fighting?" he asked as he threw what was left of the bow into the distance.

"Well, the technology is inferior, so a feudal nation of some kind,"

"Yeah," Itami muttered not entirely convinced. "But look around, reminds you of some place?"

The man fell silent with a nod. "The Massacre at Yorkshire," he said remembering the time when a terrorist organisation attacked the EDF loyal people. "Those memories hurt,"

"I cannot agree more, hopefully we can end this soon," Itami said before the two continued to walk.

OOOOO

What was left of the survivors made it back to the Capitol with the reports of the dead. Emperor Molt's advisor stood in the throne room giving the Emperor a report on the casualties.

"Your majesty, we have reports that the casualties sustained from the allied kingdoms exceeds 100,000," he said. "The defeated armies are without leadership and are returning home,"

"All according to plan," Molt said with a smile. "Our neighbours can no longer threaten the empire. Burn every village and town from Alnus hill to the Imperial city. Poison their wells, and take their food and livestock. That will stop any army and leave them vulnerable,"

"Scorched earth policy huh?" the advisor asked. "I worry about the defectors and taxation. I must also say I've been having words with the senators who when to battle with the enemy. I don't think that such polices will work if what they say is true,"

"Defectors you say?" Molt asked focusing on that instead of the talk with the senators.

"There are motions to have you recalled to the senate, beginning with Duke Casel," but that did nothing to deter the Emperor.

"Well, this is a good opportunity to care of the entire senate in one swoop," he laughed. "Let us order the council to investigate,"

But before that could be discussed, a yell made the two of them turn to the door.

"Your Majesty," a red-haired woman dressed in an elegant armour and dress marched up next to the advisor.

"My daughter," Molt said with slight annoyance. "What do you need?"

"It's about Alnus of course," she shot with a hint of anger. "I have learned that the allied army has faced a miserable defeat, and that the Empire's holy ground, Alnus hill, is occupied by enemy forces. What are you doing at a time like this?"

"We will use opportunity to take back Alnus hill," the advisor suggested.

"What complacency!" the princess yelled. "That will not help us stop the enemy invasion!"

"Pinya, you are correct," her father calmly said. "But we are far too ignorant regarding the enemy that occupies Alnus hill," as he said that an idea appeared in his head. "This is perfect, could I ask you and your order to scout their position?"

"M…me?" she asked in surprise. "With my order?"

"Indeed, if your order is more than your plaything, of course,"

That shocked the princess, but she got one knee and bowed. "Of course, your majesty,"

OOOOO

"Ok bring it round!" a soldier yelled directing four long range launchers.

The launchers were old modified scud launchers, remade for launching satellites into the atmosphere. These where useful after the majority of the shuttle launch pads were destroyed during the Aggressor war. After that they needed to get more modern satellites into space. Now they needed them for the special region. Each rocket was loaded with energy gem fuel as well as three satellites per warhead. Making 12 in all.

The launchers where moved to the helipads, the best place the launch the rockets. The trucks positioned themselves in a line with the rockets facing a wide area in case they fell.

"Ready?" he yelled to get thumbs up in response, he nodded and tapped his radio. "Attention all personnel, ear protectors on!" as soon as he got the affirmatives then gave the thumbs to the launch crew.

The rockets then moved into their launch positions pointing up into the heavens. Inside the trucks the crew made the last few calculations for launch. It didn't take long for all lights to go green, and the rockets were read for launch.

Itami walked to the prefab command tent as the rockets took off. He stopped to watch them as they flew into the sky. While he didn't care about them, a thought did cross his mind. Who else could see them? It might attract attention, but given how inferior the enemy was there was little that they could do. Sighing he walked into the command tent and up to the main squad commander.

"Lieutenant Itami, taking your time watching the launch?" he asked with a French accent.

"Yes sir," the otaku saluted. "It's good to know that we are doing what we can for intelligence,"

"Agreed which is why I called you here, Command wants to understand the enemy. So, we've come to the conclusion that we need to investigate the people, their industry, culture, politics and religion,"

"An investigation huh?" Itami asked with a smile. "I hate to see the dummy who gets that job,"

"Well congratulations dummy, you are one of them," the commander said with a smile.

"Please no," Itami begged, trying but knowing it will get him nowhere. "Please tell me I'm got going alone,"

"You're not, we've organised 6 deep recon teams, we've already picked out the teams and commanders. Obviously, you are commanding one of them. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, and you have to accept it," the officer chuckled at his bad joke. "Make contact with the people in your area and determine their nature. If possible, establish friendly relations with them. This is a hearts and minds mission after all. A side mission is to identify any possible monsters and their threat level. With what we have been able to gather from the POW's, there's more than wyverns out there. For one dragons, if they are out there we need to identify the threat and if possible take them out,"

"Seriously?" Itami asked.

"We are the EDF, we have face bigger and more dangerous threats. A dragon should be nothing to us," the dark look Itami got from the officer made him shy away slightly. "So, I hereby grant you command of Recon Team 3," he said making the L.T moan.

After the briefing Itami made his way to is new 12-man squad who stood in front of three light armoured cars. As he approached a tall mountain of a man noticed and stood at attention.

"Fall in!" he yelled with a very heavy Russian accent.

He stood taller than the rest of the squad and was clearly a heavy trooper. Itami smiled as he looked to each of them. Much like the rest of the rest of EDF squads, his was multinational. Looking at the flags he made out at least 2 Americans, 2 British, 1 Russian, 1 German, 4 Japanese, 1 Chinese and 1 Korean. With the latter being one of the Jet angels. But she had switched out her Korean flag PA gear with a standard olive green.

"H.. hi," Itami said. "I'm Iami, commander of Special Region Recon Team 3," he introduced himself. "All because I missed the Yurikamone at Shinbashi that day. Now I'm squad commander," he muttered to himself. "Let's all get going," he then said a little louder.

After he said this the Jet angel, Kyon Bo-Ra, wasn't impressed. "What's with this guy?" she muttered.

"Man, your vehicles!" the Russian then yelled with a stare that would make people cry.

With that look they manned the three vehicles quickly. They started up the vehicles and drove out of the compound. They were already stocked up with enough food and equipment for at least 2 weeks. As they drove along, they took the time to look out at the scenery, drinking it all in. Even after the 10 years since the war, many areas had yet to recover. Even with gem regeneration, it was taking a while. Now was probably the only time they could drink it all in.

Thanks to the satellite uplink, they managed to find several villages and drive to the nearest one. When they arrived the medic, Verona Hertrich the medic of the team, took point and waved a child who was quickly taken in by his mother. But the site of the newcomer made her stop. Seeing no threat, Verona indicated to the rest of the squad that the village was no threat.

Itami emerged from a bush and wave. They didn't spend much time there, other than just talk and to get an idea of who they where dealing with. After establishing some friendly relations and getting a better idea of the idea of the surrounding area before moving on. As they drove along the dirt road Itami looked up at the sky.

"So blue," he said enjoying the sight. "It sure is a different world,"

"There are places like this in Hokkaido," Takeo said. "Granted still a little damage, but it's rebuilding. But I did imagine fairies and dragons flying around. But everyone we've run into so far has been human. What a bummer," the driver moaned.

"You really want to see some cat-eared girls huh?" Itami asked.

"Ahhh a man of culture I hear," Jack said overhearing the conversation.

"A cat girl, voluptuous sorceress, whatever," he admitted. "What about you? What's your deal Commander? "

"Me, magical girls I guess," the commander admitted.

"Seriously?" Takeo asked in surprise. "Man, your standard is low,"

"Don't you talk about my wifu like that," Itami warned.

"It's all good, but I can sing her entire opening,"

"Seriously? Let's do it," and with that the two broke out into song making the other members of the squad smile but Kyon didn't like it one bit.

"Ahhh gezzz, why did I have to get stuck with annoying okatus. They are worse than idol fans," she said in annoyance.

But she wasn't the only one who was annoyed with the singing. Zharkov 'white bear' Mikhailovich, the big Russian heavy trooper, just gritted his teeth.

"You call that music?" he finally yelled. "I'll show you rookies music! To save our mother Earth from any alien attack. From vicious giant insects who have once again come back. We'll unleash all our forces. We won't cut them any slack. The E.D.F. deploys!"

"Oh god no, not that!" Itami yelled but he couldn't stop the Russian from sinning the EDF battle hymn.

'Our soldiers are prepared for any alien threats. The Navy launches ships, the Air Force sends their jets. And nothing can withstand our fixed bayonets. The E.D.F. deploys!" he continued.

"Someone stop him!" Jack yelled.

After a few hours of driving and bad singing the sun began to set in the distance. Using the directions given to them by the leader of Coda village.

"Turn right up ahead," Zharkov said to Takeo. "There should be a river up ahead,"

"Roger," Take replied and turned right at the stream. "There's the stream, just like he said,"

"We're all counting on you, bear," Itami said to the big Russian who just smiled.

"In that case, I wish to provide my opinion Commander Itami," Zharkov said. "Let's set up camp in front of the forest,"

"Agreed, it will be the beast place to show we don't mean hostilities," Itami agreed and Zharkov was about to turn the radio on before realising it was on all the time.

"Ahh, everyone already knows," he muttered.

"Not going in?" Takeo asked.

"Well if we go in now, we'll been seen as sending a hostile intent to the inhabitancy," Itami answered. "Also, we cannot see much in the dark. We are the EDF, the people who care. Our mission is to make friends out here after all,"

"True eno…" Takeo tired to say but something in the distance caught his eye.

Itami followed his eye as did Zharkov. "What the…" the heavy trooper muttered as all they saw black smoke fly into the sky.

Looking at the map Zharkov indicated a small hill where they could look over the forest. The convoy pulled over to the hill and just about everyone looked out at the ranging fire. It brought back some bad memories especially for the two Americans of the group.

"It's burning, a wildfire?" Itami suggested.

"No sir," Davis said. "That fire was started by something,"

"Reminds me of the Beizal riots," Jackson added.

Their expressions went dark at the memory. "Contact!" Zharkov said pointing at something.

Everyone activated their HUD's zoom and spotted something that wasn't expected but were still shocked with. Red scales, bone coloured underbelly, wings and fire breathing here was no mistaking it. It was a dragon.

"Bloody hell," Jack muttered, "Is that a dragon?"

"Reminds me of King Ghidorah," Zharkove said absently.

"That's old school," Itami muttered.

"Commander Itami, what do we do now?" Kyon asked.

"Kyon to hold my hand, your commander is getting scared," he joked.

"Buzz off," she shot back.

Before anyone else could say anything, the dragon roared and took off into the sky. Then a realisation hit Itami.

"A b-class monsters aren't in the habit of burning down forests for no reason, right?" he asked.

Davis and Jackson recoiled in horror as what the dragon was doing. "There's a village in there," Jackson said remembering what the mayor of Coda said.

"An elf village to be exact," Itami said. "Looks like we have to hold out on making camp,"

Everyone nodded but waited for the fire to die down. It wasn't until the next day that they could walk into the destroyed forest. Again, painful memories emerged.

"Beizal riots," Jack asked trying to make conversation. "Wasn't that at Yellowstone?"

"Yeah," Davis said. "Not a good memory, I'd prefer not to talk about it,"

Jack said nothing and just nodded in understanding.

"It would be a miracle if anyone survived here," Kyon said as she looked around.

The entire squad just moved around looking at the devastation of what the fire dragon did. All of them ignored the remains of the elfs. But they did pay some silent respects and prayers. Soon enough they found what left of the village, this allowed them to take the time to take a drink. Itami sat on the edge of a well having a drink.

"Commander," Kyon said as she walked up. "We counted 32- building like structures. But we only counted 27 corpses. I think we can assume the rest were eaten,"

"That's a safe bet, even if they are some under the rubble. If we assume 3 people per building, that means 100 people died here," Itami said doing the math for it.

"That's normally expected casualties for a Beizal attack, in a small populated area," Kyon agreed.

"Yeah, we should make a report about the attack," the otaku said standing. "And the possibly of them attacking settlements,"

"Yeah, but 30 and 50's barely put a dent in the wyverns," Kyon commented. "I suppose it's a good thing that we brought b-class monster rounds and cannons,"

"It just means that we have to find the nest before more come," Itami agreed before dropping a bucket into the well to refill his canteen.

But a thud followed by a splash made the two look down into the well. Activating their helmet lights, they spotted a survivor. A female elf surprising the two.

"We have a survivor!" Itami yelled.

Battles:

Yorkshire Massacre:

After the second EDF victory there was a power gap with many nations allowing several groups to form. One of them in the UK was a more extreme group with extremely anti-EDF views. But because the majority of places where pro EDF the group decimated an entire town killing thousands. The EDF responded by destroying and executing the ones responsible and making sure that such a group could never do something similar.

Beizal riots:

During the second aggressor war, many cities were evacuated. Several cities were moved to Yellowstone, but this was a mistake as several Beizal monsters moved into the forest causing riots and killing millions.

3rd Recon Members.

Commander: L.T Yoji Itami

2nd in command: Zharkov 'white bear' Mikhailovich.

Jet trooper: Kyon Bo-Ra

Jet trooper: Davies Mitchel

Heavy trooper: Jack Smith

Heavy trooper: Jackson York

Medic: Verona Hertrich

Trooper: Takeo Kurata

Trooper: Daisuke Tozu

Trooper: Hayato Sasagawa

Trooper: Hitoshi Furuta

Mech pilot: Chun-Li Zaho

3rd recon equipment.

1 Mk4 Kuratus

1 Humvee

2 raven transports.


	3. Chapter 3

After setting up a rope Itami, after removing is PA gear, abseiled down into the well. It was sallow as he landed and grabbed the girl inside getting a good look at her. She was alive, but cold. He needed to hurry and tried the rope around his waist.

"Angel," he yelled.

Kyon then pushed up with her thrusters pulling the two up and out of the well before placing them down beside the well. Verona moved up and looked at the elf. Bringing down her eye wear, she scanned the elf trying to get a good understanding of her vitals.

"Vell, she's human enough," she said before leading Itami back to the Raven and had him place the elf inside. "Kyon, Chun-li get your PA gear off und help me," she yelled before looking at the men. "Look und I vill fill vu," she warned.

The Idol and mech pilot did as requested and walked inside of the Raven to help the medic out. But they did make sure to close the door before they got to work. Attacking a saline solution to the elf, Verona took the elf's pulse. Machines can be wrong and she trusted her instincts.

"Right, her fidals are sdaple, put ve need to remoffe her clozing," she said looking to Kyon who nodded picking a pair of scissors and cut the elf's clothing.

Outside Takeo yelled out in joy. "It's an elf! And a blond no less. This is awesome! Hooray for the special region. I see good things happening for us!"

"You into elfs?" Itami asked cocking his brow as he finished emptying his boots of water.

"Low standards!" Jack yelled making Takeo shot a death glare at him.

"Commander," Verona said. "Zee elf's pody temberature is returning to normal. Arh ! It fould zeem zat elf's haffe zimilar bhyziology to our ovn,"

"That's good to hear," the Lieutenant said with a sigh.

"So vhat should ve do nov," the German medic asked.

"Let's see…" Itami thought for a moment. "First find me a new pair of boots!" he yelled making the medic give him an odd look. "The settlement has been wiped out. So, we cannot just leave her. Command is already expecting refugees, so we'll take her back as one,"

"Hoff did I guess vu fere koing to zay zat?" Verona asked.

"Well we're all human, we've all been in similar situations," he smiled.

"True," the German medic admitted before a devious smile appeared on her face. "Put I zought it might pe rude of me to pring up zee fact zat vu haffe zome odd Hinderests, of zat sche's ein elf," that shocked the commander and Takeo who smiled nervously while looking to her.

The fact that she was able to discern their true intentions was amazing, and frightening to the pair of them. But Itami sighed as he looked around at the devastation. EDF command knew that they would find refugees, it was an expected part of war. As such all commanders were trained how to deal with them. This also meant that refugee facilities would be automatically added to any plan for a base. After siding his boot on the Lieutenant stood.

"We'll head back to Alnus base via Coda village," he said. "Let's assume the dragon is looking for food. Standard procedure is to alert and assist any settlements in the immediate area. This maybe another world, but it still has large monsters like the Aggressors. We've all dealt with them before, let's continue to work under those conditions until needed otherwise,"

"Sir!" the others yelled out in response.

OOOOO

After a good few hours on the road, Deep Recon team 3 made it back to Coda village. With a dragon on the loose, the team sped up a bit more to reach the village. While they had never faced a dragon in combat, if their experience told them anything, then it was going to be problematic. EDF command knew this and gave each team B-class rounds.

Upon arriving at the village, Itami activated his universal translator and talked to the mayor who was shocked to learn about what happened at the elf village.

"What?" he asked in surprise. "The settlement has been wiped out?"

"We saw a dragon that spewed flame," Itami replied with his translator doing the work.

"A flame dragon?" the mayor asked with others looking to each other.

"Yes, it killed may people," he said before bringing the mayor over to the raven and showed him the lone survivor. "We could only find one survivor,"

"Just this one girl?" the mayor asked with a sorrowful voice. "What a tragedy,"

"I assume you cannot take care of her?" the lieutenant asked knowing what was coming.

"Unfortunately," the mayor replied. "We must flee the village, once a fire dragon get's a taste of flesh it will not stop,"

Itami nodded. It was a similar situation with several Aggressor species.

"We'll help," he then said making the mayor look to him in surprise. "Where we come from, we didn't have dragons, but we had something similar,"

The mayor noticed a dark look in the man's eye that made him refrain from asking any questions. It was clear they were not pleasant memories.

While the village got what little items they had, not too far away the wizard Kato and his apprentice gathered as many books as they could. The elderly man walked down the steps from his hut with a pile of books in hand but they covered his sight which made him fall next to his apprentice. Then like a child began to cry and throw a tantrum.

"Master," his blue haired apprentice said as she turned to look at him. "We cannot carry any more," she said.

"Noo I need my books!" he demanded before stopping his tantrum and looked up at the blue haired girl. "Lelei, isn't there anything we can do?"

Lelei looked at him without blinking. "Certainly," she said getting his hopes up. "I believe we should prioritise the most valuable books,"

"That's right," her master said as he stood and dusted himself down. "You sure are smart Lelei," he then bent down to pick up the books and his staff. "But why now?" he asked. "Damn that fire dragon! Showing up 50 years early," he said as he put the rest of the books on the cart. "Look at all the trouble it's causing us," as he talked Lelei was finishing off tying off the rope to hold the books down.

"I wish you would sleep already too," she said making Kato look to her with an unimpressed look.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" he asked. "I'm not interested in mounting little girls like you!" he shot before his mind turned to more perverted things making him smile and laugh. "I'd rather mount a curvy woman like your sister," he then began to make a few unsavoury actions to an invisible person.

Wanting him to stop Lelei shot a gust of wind at him that made him fall back a few feet.

"Stop!" he demanded. "Magic is sacred! Do not abuse it!" he said before something hit him in the side of the face sending him to the floor making him regret what he did.

Lelei didn't smile as she stopped her magic. She then climbed onto the cart with her master soon following.

"You sure cannot take a joke," he pouted.

"I blame you as my educator, master," she shot with her tone not changing and making him look away with another pout.

Lelei then tried to make the mule they had move. But he didn't.

"He won't move," Kato said point out the obvious. "We must be carrying too much,"

"You were the one who said to back all this," Lelei countered. "This was to be expected,"

"Not to worry," Kato proudly declared. "I am a sorcerer after all!"

"Isn't magic sacred?" his apprentice asked noting the hypocrisy her master was committing. "Something not to be abused?" he gave her a sour look. "Those were your words master," as she said that she brought up her own staff.

"But…" he tried to say however his apprentice had already taken the incentive.

"But in this case, we have no choice," she said before casting a spell making the cart float.

"Sorry," her master said as the cart moved.

"It's ok," Lelei said. "I've always that this is simply who you are," that made him smile as they made their way to the convoy in the village.

As they arrived, they noticed a long line of carts and people. It seems like there was a traffic jam of some kind.

"What's going on up ahead?" Kat asked as he leaned to the side to try and get a better view.

Just then one of the villagers approached. "Master Kato, Lelei" he said getting the both of their attention. "One of the carts was carrying too much. It's axel broke, and it's blocking the way,"

"Come on!" a voice then yelled in a language the two were unfamiliar with. "Assisting with evacuations is part of our job!" the two looked up to see two people in strange green armour run around one of the carts.

"Commander Itami!" another one called. "Please ask the mayor to move out of the way!"

"Understood," the one named Itami called back.

"I've never heard a language like that," Kato said surprised at what he just heard.

"I've never seen clothes or armour like that," Lelei added as the two began to listen.

"Verona, make sure no on is injured!" someone yelled.

"Yavol!" a clearly female voice.

"Female soldiers too?" Kato asked with even more surprise.

Now with this her interest peaked even more Lelei decided now it was best to go and investigate. "Master, I'm going to take a look," she said as she climbed off the cart.

Before her master could stop her, the young witch ran beside the other carts to see what was going on. So many questions filled her mind. Who were these people? Where did they come from? How did their society work? And more. As she reached the front of the line, she saw a turned over cart with a wheezing horse on the ground.

A girl lay in front of her who had been tossed off the cart itself. She got down next to the girl and looked at her. Her knowledge of medicine was basic, but she could tell that this girl was in trouble.

"She's hurt bad," she muttered to herself.

Just then one of the people in green came up and got down as well. As she did Lelei got a good look at her. She wore similar clothing to the others but part of the armour she wore had white patches on parts of her armour and what looked like to be a red cross in the middle. The young witch watched as the woman in green brought down something over her eye and looked up and down the young girl.

"Sche's kot ein concuzion," she said in another language different to the one she heard earlier. "Sche's alzo kot ein skull fracture,"

Lelei looked at her amazed as to how she knew that. Before he could ask one of the men in green came up behind her.

"Miss," he said in a language she could understand. "Please stand back,"

But she didn't pay any attention as she was just focused at the woman in front of her. "Doctors?" she asked to no one in particular.

The injured horse then screamed and stood up on his hind legs ready to attack. Its eyes betrayed the fact it was in a frenzy. Just as it was about to attack a loud bang comparable to a thunderclap echoed in her ears. Part of the horses neck then exploded before it fell down dead. As it fell it flew up some of the dust on the floor. Lelei didn't know what to say as she just looked at the dead animal. Just who were these people?

Itami just looked at the girl who was just trying to help someone out and sighed.

"Commander," Takeo said getting the LT's attention as Verona helped the blue haired girl. "We aren't going to take care of these people, forever are we? I mean don't they have royalty for that?"

"About that," Jack spoke up. "I talked to the mayor. He said that none of the local nobility have returned. They were sent to Alnus hill,"

Takeo said nothing and just hung his head as did several others. Sometimes you are the cause of the problem, despite trying to help.

OOOOO

The night sky was lit up by the moon as a group of bandits huddled around a roaring fire. Remnants of the defeated armies, planned their next raid for food, money and weapons.

"It seems that Coda village is on the run," one of them said.

"This is a good opportunity," another said with a smile.

"But do we have enough men?" another questioned.

"We'll find more," the smiling one countered. "There are plenty of stragglers left from the recent battle. Round them up, we could take them on, not just a village but an entire town. We could overthrow a local lord! From a bandit leader to a lord, I like it,"

He never felt the blade go though his chest. He was still smiling as he fell down dead while his men looked up at the attacker.

"Gentlemen," a voice said from a gothic dressed girl. "Thank you for tonight," she licked her lips. "Thank you for giving your lives so selflessly," as she ready to strike with her axe. "The all father…" she said as she took out another bandit. "…is very pleased with your actions. Now he requests, your presence," she took out two more. "I'm Rory Mercury, the apostle of the Dark God Emloy," she declared.

"She's one of the twelve apostles!" one of the bandits said. "Death God Rory!"

"She…." one of the others said. "….she's wearing the Emloy shrine oracle uniform,"

"Run!" another said but Rory licked her lips.

"I don't think so," she said before charging in.

The bandits didn't stand a chance as she took them down one by one. She showed no mercy as they tried to escape. Not one survived.

OOOOO

The Coda refugee moved along slowly due to the number of people. The EDF took point with one of the Ravens and the Humvee while the other Raven and the Kuratus took up the back of the convoy. As they rode along some of the village children rode in the Ravens and Humvee loving the experience. But inside the Humvee Verona kept an eye on the sleeping elf.

"Sche schould rekain consciousness zoon," she said looking to Itami.

"That's good to hear," he said before looking outside. "But man, this sucks,"

"Do we even have a destination?" Takeo asked as he drove.

"They don't have one," Itami replied with another sigh.

"Seriously?" his driver asked in surprise.

"Being on the run is tiering," the LT moaned ignoring the driver.

But soon they hit a problem as one of the carts axels broke. It could no longer move forcing the convoy to stop. Three of the team pushed the cart off the road to make way for the others while the mayor informed the family to take what they can carry and leave the rest. Itami also added that they needed to burn the cart, something which Verona questioned.

"Vy did vu force zem to purn zeir cart?" she asked.

"Because they weren't going to move," he replied. "I didn't have a choice. We are behind enemy lines with a flame dragon out there. We cannot stay here for long,"

"Yah, I understand," she replied.

"Huh, someone's up ahead," Takeo then said making everyone look forward.

"What?" the LT asked grabbing his binoculars and looked though them.

At first, he noticed a flock of crows before the sight of an axe entered his view. He then looked down to see one of his fantasies come true.

"Goth Lolita girl!" he yelled with joy.

"What?" Takeo yelled sharing the same excitement and looked though his own binoculars. "Whaaaaaa?"

She then approached the convoy. "Where did you come from? Where are you going?" she asked.

As she got closer the children riding in the back of the Humvee jumped out the back and ran to the Lolita.

"It's the Oracle!" they said running up to her. "Oracle, Oracle!"

"Oracle?" Itami questioned as the kids reached the axe welding goth.

"Where did you come from?" the Oracle asked smiling at the kids as some of the adults joined them, but were a bit more respectful by kneeling.

"From Coda village," one of the kids said.

"We fled from the village," another added. "There was a fire dragon, we had to run,"

"Zey abear to pe braying to her," Verona noticed.

"So, there's some religious reason she's wearing that outfit," Itami concluded before the Oracle noticed him.

She then walked up next to the Humvee and looked to the EDF troopers inside. "Who are these strange people?" she asked.

"They saved us!" one of the kids said. "They are good people,"

"So, you aren't being forced out of your village?" she asked.

"Nope," the kid answered as the Oracle looked at the Humvee.

"How does this thing move?" she asked.

"I don't know," the kid said innocently. "But it's way comfier than riding in our carts,"

"Oh?" she looked at him with a smile. "Comfier huh?" licking her lips she then looked at Itami with a hungry look. "I'd like to see how it rides too,"

"Hello," Itami said with fear which only made her smile.

A moment later she was sitting happily on his lap much to his horror. "W... wait a second," he tried to say flustered. "This is a really tight fit. Move please," he begged despite the smile on her face.

"No fair commander!" Takeo said in a jealous voice.

It turned into a mess as the Oracle tried to figure out what was happening in the Humvee much to the embarrassment of the commander. Thankfully Rory, as she was known, settled down next to the commander while the diver just pouted. But they continued onwards to wherever would take the refugees. As they drove along, Itami had his head out of the window getting some air. But as they did, he felt the heat on the back on his neck. Turing, he looked up at the sun.

"Is it just me, or is the sun hotter here than in Japan?" he asked no one in particular.

But something the emerged from the sun, that made his eyes widen. The fire dragon.

"CONTACT! FLYING B-CLASS CREATURE!" he yelled over the radio.

The dragon took this opportunity to take out some of the carts of the convoy. People scattered in fear and paic for their lives while the EDF vehicles stopped.

"It's a real fire dragon!" Kato said as he and Lelei avoided its fire breath.

The dragon then landed and gave a terrifying roar. As it did the EDF soldiers exited their vehicles, each one sharing a dark look. Rory watched as the soldiers in green step out and line up looking at the dragon. There was an aura about them, they weren't afraid. There was no hint of fear in what she saw, instead there was an anger about them. Not a bloodlust, but one of revenge for those it had killed.

"ATTACK!" Itami yelled and the EDF advanced.

"They aren't planning to take on a fire dragon? Are they?" Kato asked as he watched the green soldiers moved faster the seemed possible.

But they were and people looked on. "Switch out normal rounds for B-class," Itami ordered. "Jet Troopers, take out the wings prevent it from flying away. The rest of you, split up. Give it multiple targets, take it down!"

"Roger!" everyone called and began to open fire.

"Over herrre!" Bear then yelled as he brought up a big 105 cannon. "Have taste of Mother RRRussia! Arrrrghh!" he yelled and fired.

The round impacted the side of the dragon making it roar in pain and throw a fireball at him. He moved out of the way and continued to fire. Chun li moved around in her mech, firing her 60mm autocannon. But her movements made it hard to hit, but it also made her shots miss. Even with B-class rounds, it was difficult to make any kind of damage against the dragon.

Kyon and Davies flew into the air and looked down at the dragon. Their flight masks down, they made calculations on what part of the wings to aim for. Looking to each other after making a decision they nodded before drawing plasma swords. The two of them then dived in quickly with both of them focusing on a wing. Kyon focused on the right while Davies focused on the left. They then cut into the membrane wing of the dragon making it yell out in pain.

It then battered Davies away but he recovered in mid-air while Kyon landed on the dragon and slashed at the base of one of the wings. While the scales were tough it was little match against the heat of a plasma blade. But before she could cut it off completely it threw her off sending her into the air. She didn't want to try that again so she threw a grenade at the wound. It exploded but it did little to sever the wing. Swearing in Korean, she brought up her assault rifle she began to dance in the air firing at the beast.

Jack looked to where Kyon tried to cut the wing off. Smiling he aimed one of his shoulder mounted rocks and fired. It hit its mark and the right wing tore off the great beast. It roared in pain and the refugees watched their mouth's agape at the damage these people were doing to a dragon. It was apparent that they did something like this before. Rory also looked on with surprise. These people, were fighting a dragon and they were not afraid. Suddenly a noise made her look behind the seat to see the once sleeping elf awake.

"The dragon," she muttered. "They are fighting a dragon?"

"Indeed, they are," Rory said turning back to the fight.

The movements of the them made it hard for the dragon to select a target so it was just breathing fire in the hopes of taking some of them out. But the flying soldiers and how fast they made made it hard for it to focus on any. Spewing fire was all it could do. But they removed its ability to fly away, now came the finishing blow.

"Bear!" Itami yelled as he reloaded. "Railgun!"

The big Russian man smiled and dropped his 105mm cannon before moving away from the fight to get a good vantage point. Turning around he activated stabilisation spikes then pinned him to the ground before he pulled out a large hexagonal shaped box with four poles out in front. Holding the trigger down, he braced himself. Electric arcs then bounced from each of the poles as it charged up. It took 30 seconds, before it was fully charged. He smiled before letting go of the trigger.

A loud bang echoed across the canyons and a metal disk flew through the air faster than sound. It cut the back of the dragon's neck before hitting the wall behind it. The dragon stopped and fell down, dead. The disk cut though it's nerves, severing the brains connection to the rest of the body.

The refugees just stared at what they had just seen. These people killed a dragon, and made it look easy.

"EDF!" Itami then yelled.

"EDF!" the others chanted. "EDF! EDF! EDF!"

OOOOO

As night fell and the bodies of the dead were buried what was left of the refugees and EDF made their own thoughts and prayers for the dead. The odd plants glowing in the night giving the burial site a serene look to it all. After it was over a decision was made. There was a nearby town were the most of the refugees could go. But the others, the ones who had no family in the town, would go with the EDF.

A new chapter of their lives would soon begin.


	4. Chapter 4

After the rest of the village left, some of them grabbing dragon scales as a souvenir, Itami, his team and the abandoned villagers waited close to the fire dragon carcass. The team called in aerial pickup for them and the what was left of the dragon. But since the elf woke up, Verona had been checking her out after handing her some clothing. But aside from some scaring, she seemed to be ok. As for things to do, the kids where playing with Bear who loved to play with kids.

Leiei however was more interested in the devices used by the EDF. Verona was more then happy to show them off. Currently the young witch wore the helmet that the medic wore and was amazed with how it worked. The object that she has over her eye allowed her everything that the area had to offer. What the air was like and more. While she didn't understand all of it, she got the basic idea for what it was meant to do. Tell the wearer what was around.

She had learned so much, but then something met her ears and she looked up. Her eyes widened as two large birds approached. From the sound she thought that they were more dragons but as they got closer, she was proven wrong. Looking up in awe she saw two metal birds fly in. Each one had four windmills, two on each side, that somehow kept it up in the air. As they approached the blade then turned so that they now faced upwards before coming into land.

"What are those?" her master cried out in shock.

"Some kind of flying machine," Leiei said coming to the only logical conclusion.

"But…." her master began to stammer. "….that's impossible!"

"Apparently not," Rory said with a smile walking up next to them. "Let's not forget, these people took down a flame dragon like it was nothing. Who knows what wonderful things they have,"

And with that she left to go look at the flying machines. The EDF were nothing if not powerful.

_OOOOO_

_An elf ran though the forest as quickly as he could. He was panicking, as he moved. With the village in sight he jumped from tree to tree and landed on a wooden bridge before running into one of the dwellings. _

"_Chuka!" he yelled out entering the building then ran up to a sleeping blond elf. "Chuka wake up!"_

_The elf woke looking up at the male elf. "Dad?" she asked with surprise and waking up more. _

"_You have to run!" he said making her look to him with even more surprise. _

_But the man fell silent as he looked outside. Chuka followed his eyes only to see a flame dragon flying in their direction. The shock and horror then dawned on her about what was going to happen. She could only watch as it breathed fire taking out several archers before they could even let their arrows lose. Her father picked her up bridal style and ran out of the building. He ran to the village well. _

"_Hide here," he said. _

"_Dad," she tried to complain but he just dropped her in the well._

_She could only watch as he was eaten by the dragon with a smile on his face. _Chuka woke up only to find herself inside the metal beast of the people who saved her. One of them looked over her with a smile.

"Guten morgan," she said.

All Chuka could do was look around her mind spinning as to where she was. Looking outside she could see more people who fought the fire dragon walking and talking.

"Come on miss, ve need to moffe," the woman said offering her hand.

She nodded and took the woman's hand and was helped up before she was led off the metal beast. As she exited her eyes then fell onto the flame dragon. Her eyes widened as what happened came flooding back to her. She hid behind the woman who helped her who frowned worrying about her mental state.

"Ok roll it out!" someone yelled and the dragon began to move.

Chuka didn't see it, but what happen was that the dragon was transported back to Anlus base to be taken for research. If there were more of these things, they needed to know everything they could. But one soldier wasn't too happy about this.

"No fair!" he yelled. "I'm meant to be the fire dragon slayer! How dare they kill one without me!"

"Come on Todd," another spoke up, "You were a voice actor not an actual dragon slayer,"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" he yelled but only got a fist to the back of the head sending him into the floor.

"Enough," a red-haired woman said. "We have a job to do,"

"Yes.. Captain," he muttered.

Everyone began to laugh at this and Chuka smiled as well. These people seemed to be like a family. But the rest of the villages just looked around at the buildings made up of stone and steel. Towering pillars that stood higher than the walls, flags of multiple nations and more. The EDF were mighty if not impressive.

OOOOO

The survivors had moved to several different towns and villages. One family had relatives at one of the larger villages who had a pub. The relatives where more than happy to offer them a place to work for the time being. But the pub was closed off to all sunlight and the only light was a fire. As they day passed, they served many until a group of regulars. As they entered, they noticed the new waitress serving people

"Hi miss," one of them said with a smile. "You new here?"

"Yes, I am," she smiled. "Me and my family had to evacuate from our village,"

One of them decided to press for more information. "What was the reason?" he asked. "I've heard that there's an enemy at Alnus, was it because of them?"

The woman thought for a moment. "Well they did say that they were from Alnus, but they were not the ones who forced us to move. As a matter of fact, they helped us to evacuate due to a flame dragon. Which they killed," that last part shocked the everyone who heard what she said.

"They what?" asked the regular with eyes wide. "They killed a flame dragon?"

"Yep, saw it myself," the waitress said proudly.

"You don't expect us to believe you?" another asked.

"It's true," the waitress insisted.

One of them smiled as he thought about a logical solution to this. "Sure, you weren't knocked out and dreamed the whole thing?" he then began to laugh while a group of knights listened in.

Princess Pina was interested but didn't put too much weight to the story.

"What do you think?" her friend asked one of her fellow knights.

"What do I think?" he asked. "I thin that her bar is filthy, the beer is nasty and so is the food,"

"Norma," Grey said looking to him with a warning look. "We are on a secret mission to Aluns hill, and they are talking about a flame dragon,"

"You are too loud," Pina muttered. "Hamilton keep going," she encouraged her friend.

"Right," she said quickly and continued. "This rumour has spread like wildfire. A band of mercenaries in green with strange weapons and armour. While evacuating the residents Coda village, they killed a flame dragon, with a weapon that severed part of its neck. Not one of them was cared, or even feared it. They charged in without hesitation and with their weapons killed it as if it was nothing,"

"There are all kinds of dragons," Norma said. "From ancient dragons and newborns, and winged dragons too,"

"It was a real fire dragon sir," the waitress said as she came over and placed a jug on the table.

"You can't fool me," Norma said raising to the challenge.

"Not only did I see it with my own eyes…" she said pulling something out from her cleavage and held it up for the table to see. "I have a scale from it," that made their faces drop in surprise.

Gray, being the more experienced knight took a hold of it and looked at the scale. Despite never seeing them, he knew that there were differences between the different types of dragons and their scales. The shape, size and colour… there was little doubt in his mind that this was a flame dragon scale.

"Amazing," was all he said before Hamilton spoke up.

"Would you please tell us about the ones in green?" she asked.

The waitress then began to think. "Humm, I'm not sure what to say," she admitted.

"Please," the young knight said offering a gold coin which the waitress took with blinding speed.

"Well then let me tell you a story," she then said with a smile. "When the dragon attacked us that day, they saved us. They had a magic weapon that looked like a great iron clock, rode in mighty, unyielding wagons made of iron with an iron ogre, and all dressed in green like the forest," the knights began to listen.

OOOOO

Itami stood in the commander's office who was going over the paper for the refugees. He sighed in frustration.

"While cahmmahnd hahs expected us to tahke een refugees," he began. "Sahme wahrneeng would hahve been nice!"

Itami just stood that with a nervous smile as the commander went of speaking French while in Hazuma's room Lieutenant Akira walked in with a clipboard in hand.

"Lieutenant General," he said as he walked in. "I've got the reports ready for you,"

Hazuma smiled. "Excellent, did we learn anything?" he asked.

"Well, the translators are still having some trouble with the language but we have made peaceful contact," Akira said handing the clipbord to the general who began to look at it. "Most of them appear to be human, and practice agriculture and forestry. There's more about their manufacturing and trade good in the documents. Every village seems to have an elder, but we have no detailed information about their political structure," he then sighed. "I do hope we can bring a number of them here for talks,"

"Given how our communications are with them, we may need to hold off on that idea until we can understand them better," Hazuma. "They might take it as a sign of even more hostilities,"

Akira nodded at that. "Itami's team has brought in several refuges. And refuges can be explained to anyone. Military or otherwise,"

"Just like back in the war," Hazuma said leaning back in his chair. "That's fine with me," he smiled with the confidence of experience.

After muttering in French for a while, the commander smiled. "Well we hahve gaht sings ready fahr ziss seetuation, but seence you drahpped ziss on us weethout wahrneeng... you ahre going to look ahftair zem ahnd observe zem,"

"What?" the Lieutenant moaned.

After finishing his talk with the commander Itami walked down a hall in a slump with four members of 3rd recon. "Angel, Hertrich are to go and get some extra rations. Mitchel and Tomita, go and requisition some bedding and clothing from supplies. I'll handle the paperwork,"

"Roger," the four said as they continued to walk while Itami sighed in frustration.

OOOOO

A table was set up in a section of the fortress that was still being built. This section was meant for any and all refugees that come in. They were built like small apartment blocks, and since most of the refuges were kids at least three people, who were former teachers, were set up to look after and each the children. One building was done, but the others were still being built due to the area being low priority.

The refugees walked up to the table and were handed open tins of food. One of them tried to touch the tin, but it was hot. He pulled back with shock before one of the soldiers walked up and opened it for him. Inside was rice with both vegetables and meat. He looked up at the solder who smiled and nodded. The kid also smiled and began to eat. It was soo good that he couldn't stop eating. Soon they were all done and night fell over and the fort went to sleep.

The next day after taking a register of the refuges, Leiei and Kato watched the other section of the other half of the section that they were on. The metal ogres that they had where moving and assembling what looked like to be buildings similar to what they stayed in the pervious night. But unlike the green ogre they have seen, these ones seemed to be bulkier and were yellow.

"What are they doing?" Kato asked watching them.

"I think that they are building more houses," Leiei said. "It seems that they are expecting more people to turn up,"

"They are?" he asked looking to his apprentice.

"Yes, I may not understand the language but it does seem that they have experience with refugees," she replied matter of facly.

Kato nodded. "Well I'll get started with getting our books out and into our room," he said before walking off.

Leiei then looked to see Chuka standing watching one of the ogres working. But there was something about her that seemed off about her, almost like she wasn't all there. Curious the young witch walked up to the blond elf.

"Is something wrong?" she asked getting the elfs attention.

"No," the elf said turning to look at one of the ogres. "When my dad learns that he missed seeing something like this, I'm sure he'll be disappointed. I'll have to tell him about it later,"

That last part made Leiei look at the elf with an odd look before two soldiers waring yellow jackets walk up to them.

"It's not safe here, please leave," one of them said.

Leiei nodded and took the elf's hand leading her away and behind a barricade. As she did this, a smell met her nose. It smelled good, so she followed the smell to a tent and where a few of the soldiers where working on pealing some vegetables that she had never seen before. One of the soldiers, who had a white headband, looked at what she was looking at and smiled.

"This is daikon raddish, daikon," he said.

"Daikon," Leiei repeated.

She stayed watching the cooks cook, but keeping a distance away trying not to get in their way. But soon enough the food was ready, and the other refugees were brought back to the table. Unlike the previous night, they were given bowls full of soup and bread to go with it. Itami smiled as he stood before them.

"Please go ahead and eat," he said with the translator doing most of the work.

Kato picked up the bread and took a bite making him yell out in joy. "This is delicious!" he declared. "This bread is amazing! So soft and fluffy!"

"Daikon, bread," Leiei muttered before picking up the odd utensil that most of the EDF troopers used. "Chopsticks," she then placed her hands together in silent prayer with the chopsticks held between her thumbs.

"Aren't you going to eat?" her master asked.

"Some of the EDF do this before they eat," she replied before falling silent for a moment. "Let's eat,"

OOOOO

"Goddamn leaches," General Hazuma yelled as he slammed his fist onto the table.

Everyone turned to look at him then at the paper. "Ahh, shit," one of the others muttered.

The headline was as straightforward as they came. 'Are the EDF responsible for civilian deaths?' it asked.

"How in the hell did they get their hands on this?" he asked as one of his assistants picked up the paper.

"EDF accused of letting 153 people die in the special region," he began to read. "Reports indicate that this is the work of a literal dragon. Why the EDF didn't kill the dragon sooner and prevented this remains a mystery," he shook his head with disappointment. "And it's a loyal EDF paper. Bloody office politics," he muttered with others nodding.

While the EDF was united in every sense of the word, the problem was that even the loyal EDF groups had their own agenda. Fighting for one's species, united the EDF but not the rest of the world. As such different groups had different ideas as to what the EDF should be and do. It ticked the high command off when humans tried to do things that went against the EDF.

"We need to deal with this," Hazuma said looking up. "Any ideas?"

OOOOO several days later.

Itami as fast as he could to one of the newly built recreational areas. He opened the door to one of them with a yell of join before getting his clothes off and jumped into one of them.

"Ahh this is blisss!" he moaned and sank deeper into the water.

After working on the small apartments, the EDF build crews began work on the recreational buildings. The first one on their list and Itami was going to take full advantage of it. The same was said for the female baths as Rory entered with a couple of kids. As they entered her eyes fell on the blond elf, who was only starting to undress.

"Oh, someone's here already?" she asked.

"Err well," Chuka muttered before heavy breathing met their ears.

Turing, they saw a someone in a mask and heavy coat. Two of the kids reacted in fear, but then that someone removed the mask and hood to show Leiei was inside it.

"Was investigating outside, found this," she said. "All sweaty now,"

A few moments later they found themselves in the bath relaxing.

"This feels so good," Rory said as she sank into the water. "I can't believe they'd build a bath in a place like this,"

"I've never had a bath indoor either," Leiei muttered getting the oracles attention.

"You too?" she smiled.

"I was originally part of a nomadic tribe called the Rurudo. So, I've only ever bathed in rivers and streams," she then looked toward Rory. "Do you have an indoor bath Priestess?"

"Call me Rory," she smiled.

"You can call me Leiei," the young witch replied.

"Sure," the priestess smile. "The temple had a luxurious Imperial bath. But as an apostle, I'm fated to wonder throughout the land. So, I'm pleasantly surprised to find a bath like this in the middle no nowhere,"

"Itami said that there would be a bath every day," Leiei said remembering what the EDF soldier was going.

"Itami?" Rory asked with a curious voice before realising who she was talking about. "Oh, the EDF,"

"Is that the man who saved me?" Chuka asked out loud but then looked away in shame. "Um I was wondering if he was the one who saved me when I was lying unconscious in the village well,"

"Yes," the young witch confirmed. "It should have been Itami's squad that saved you,"

"Itami…" the elf muttered.

"You've mostly revered from all that, then?" the priestess asked with an evil smile.

"You lost your family and village a short while ago," Leiei added. "I'd understand for you to be in a state of serious shock,"

"Ever since that day…" Chuka mumbled. "I haven't been able to repay those who helped me. I wonder if it's ok for me to be here,"

"It's fine," Rory spoke up with a smile of understanding. "Most of the people here just lost their families. The same goes for the EDF. When they faced that dragon, I felt rage, loss, and an anger I have never felt. They faced something before, and they see you as one of them," that made the elf smile.

After having a nice bathe, the three got out and began to was the hair of the kids who where in the bath with them. Rory looked to the blue haired witch with a smile.

"Anyway, you've learned a lot about their language, haven't you?" she asked inquisitively.

"Well the one that is being used by the majority of them," she smiled. "There's at least 20 different languages I have noticed, but the one that most of them speak is Japanese. Which is the one I'm studying,"

"20?" Rory asked in surprise. "But I saw 24 flags,"

"Four of those nations have the same language, but different accents," that surprised both the Priestess and elf.

"Nations? So, they are a joint army?" Chuka asked.

"Yes, the Gate opened up into a nation called 'Japan'. There are other nations as well, but it seems that Japan is a member of the EDF, the Earth Defence Force. Earth is what they call their world,"

"Their world?" the elf asked with a curious raise of the brow.

"Yes, there is a whole world out there that we know nothing about. But most of them talk about two things, a war that happened 10 years ago and aggressors. I'm not sure what they are talking about however. But given their voices, and their unconscious actions it seems that the war was more costly than any of them care to admit," Leiei said making the two interested in who the EDF really are.

OOOOO

Princess Pina stood before a door with some hesitation. She had heard about the EDF from the waitress, and if half of what she said was true then her father is in way over his head. She gulped opening the door and walked in. One of the nurses then lead her to one of the rooms. Inside on the bed was the wounded form of King Duran. Her eyes widened as they fell onto his missing arm and leg.

"King Duran," she said with surprise.

"Princess Pina," he replied. "What brings you here?" he asked.

"When I was searching for information about Alnus, I heard that a high-born man was recuperating from his wounds here," she answered.

"Information?" he asked with an odd tone. "You don't know what happened at Alnus?" her reaction told him everything. "You haven't heard anything about what happened? What happened to the allied nation's armies? The Imperial army was defeated before we even fought, yes? The Emperor knew that, and yet he called upon the allied nations armies anyway. We were a potential threat to the empire, so he used the enemy to get rid of us,"

Pina moved up to his side. "I'm aware that the Imperial army was defeated beforehand, but…"

But before she could continue the King continued. "Princess the allied armies fought until the very end. But our true enemy was to our rear,"

"The rear?" she asked.

"Do you not understand? The Empire!" he said. "The Empire was our true enemy!" that shocked the princess.

"Your highness please tell me, what you know about the enemy!" she pleaded moving close to him but he shooed her away.

"If you want to know go to Alnus hill yourself," he said making her look down.

She got up and was about to leave before a thought crossed her mind. "At least tell me one thing," she said getting his attention. "I'm sure you've heard about the mercenaries in green. Is it possible for them to take out a flame dragon?"

"With the weapons they have, yes," he said and with that she left.

Outside Hamilton was finishing readying her horse. Hearing footsteps she turned to see the Princess walking towards them.

"Princess," she muttered. "Please don't tell the knights to charge up Alnus hill,"

"I'm not that stupid," she replied. "Doing so would be suicide. But either way, we need to visit Alnus. Norma, give the order for the main unit to move out,"

"Right," he said before the princess turning to Grey.

"Grey what's up ahead?" she asked.

"Italica lies between here and Alnus hill," he said.

"Italica huh?" she asked.

OOOOO

Looking at his phone, Itami ignored everyone around him as it downloaded something.

"Sweet!" he yelled ignoring Angel and Verona who stood beside him. "They must have finally got the tower up!" he said with joy. "Time to see what's out.

"Ummm," Verona said but the Lieutenant ignored her.

"Oh, wow, I've got to save this…" he muttered. "Crap I almost missed it,"

"Hello," Angel said as she began to curse the otaku.

"Well you never know when a web novel is going to disappear,"

"Lieudenant!" Verona practically yelled.

"Ok, I'm going to check this every day now," that infuriated the idol.

"Squad leader!" Angel yelled.

"Hey Captain they are calling for you!" Itami yelled earning himself a kick from the Jet Angel.

His face slammed onto his desk making him grunt in pain and moan.

"Kyon! If you were there you should have said something!" he said pretending that he didn't hear them.

"I did," she muttered.

"Lieudenant, Chuka's acting schtrange," Verona said with a concerned look.

"Chuka, the elf?" Itami asked.

"Food, clozing, lodging. Arh ! Sche's requests enough for tvo beople. Put sche alvays leaffes zee zecond borzion Hundouched. Arh ! Und zee cloths sche requests are alvays for ein man," Verona said with and analytical tone.

"I have a guess as to why," Itami muttered. "You ask her why?"

"I had Leiei ask," the medic said.

"Even with her Japanese, it's hard to make heads or tails of it," Kyon said with an apologetic tone.

"I effen asked Kato, put he zaid zat sche's ein fery rare tybe, effen among elfs," the medic added.

"So, he really doesn't understand?" Itami asked. "Sounds like PTSD, or at least some form of it,"

Verona nodded she also had that guess as well.

OOOOO

Chuka sat at one of the tables outside of the buildings looking at a pile of washing that she was given. Rory was sitting close to her as well.

"Chuka," the Priestess said breaking the elf's trance. "Something wrong?"

"N…nothing," the elf muttered.

"This is pretty impressive isn't it?" the oracle asked. "The EDF said that this was made for us,"

"Which explains the food and bath," Chuka said. "But this is actually a lot nicer than living in the forest. But…." she tailed off with a thought.

"What's wrong?" Rory asked.

"We'll need to provide for ourselves eventually," she said. "And I don't really know how. If worst comes to the worst, we might have to sell ourselves to the soldiers," at that moment Leiei walked up wearing the mask and heavy coat.

"The outside, seems ok," she said taking them off. "Come with me, I want to show you something,"

She then led the Priestess and elf onto the scarred field over to a pile of winged corpses. She then bent down and picked up a scale.

"Are all these… wyvern corpses?" Rory asked.

"This is where the Empire and allied forces fought the EDF," Leiei explained. "Itami said we can take all the wyvern scales," that shocked the elf.

"What? Wyvern scales sell for a very high price!" she nearly screamed. "And they say we can have them?"

"Itami said that the EDF aren't interested in them. They provide no commercial use except for jewellery," Leiei said. "But they have enough. We won't need to sell ourselves,"

Notes:

Hawk type 3:

The Hawk is a quad rotor aircraft meant for heavy lift transports. The design was based on the Boeing quad rotor and was fast tracked in development. While the first ones had problems the type 2's and 3's had more of a reliable streak and become the main heavy aircraft.

Kuratus Excavator:

During the Kuratus trials, one of them that was used was known as the Kuratus bear. This variation was made with heavy armour, structure, servos and more. But this made it heavier and more impractical for combat. However, this made it perfect for industrial use. After an exchange of equipment and a paint change the Kuratus Excavator was rolled out for both military and industrial use.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, sorry for the delay and some skips. Enjoy!**

Deep recon team 3 where having a nice peaceful drive across the countryside. It was a bright sunny day despite what happened over the past week. In the back of the Raven sat Rory, Chuka, Leiei and Bear who was checking up on the map. While most of the population expected the EDF to have some kind of tablet for a map, the truth was that such a map was good when it comes stationary places like a base. But when it came to being mobile carrying a tablet map that would need to be charged and updated on a regular basis was practically useless. Especially if they had to go out on long tours.

Sometimes low tech beats high tech. As Bear checked the map Leiei watched over his shoulder interested in what he was doing.

"So, ve'rrre on Trrressarrria highvay rrright now," he said showing the young witch. "and zis is city of Italica?" he asked before noticing where the eyes of the witch were and held up his compass. "Vant to see zis?" he asked with her nodding making him smile. "Vell zis is how it's used," and began to show her how it worked while Itami and Tomia just smiled.

"They called him the 'Drill Sargent from hell' and he's grinning at a little girl," Kurata said with a smile.

"Well his family was Spetsnaz before the merger," Itami said before looking at the rear-view mirror.

Chuka looked to Verona who smiled but it made the elf look away and down. Rory smiled as she leaned in to the elf's ear.

"Interested?" she asked only to make the elf blush and edge away. "So that's your type," the oracle smiled making the elf look to her in horror.

"What are they doing?" Itami muttered.

"Lieutenant," Kurata then said in a less then optimistic tone.

"What is it?" the commander asked.

"There's smoke ahead," the driver replied not taking his eyes off the road. "To our right,"

Itami followed Kurata's eyes and looked towards the right were a column of smoke rose up into the sky. "All vehicles stop," he ordered and after a few moments later the convoy stopped and Itami reached over to get a better. "Kurata, does this highway take us close to the source of that smoke?"

"It takes us right to it," the driver answered.

"This is the second time we've seen smoke rising into the sky," the Lieutenant muttered. "That's supposed to be Italica over there. I've got a bad feeling about this," as he talked Leiei tried to use the binoculars but got them wrong way round.

Turing them round she then tried again getting a good look at the location. "That's… smoke…" she tried to say in the best Japanese she could.

"You know what's going on?" Itami asked.

"Something people have done," she clarified. "A flower, it's big,"

"Flower?" Kurata asked. "Oh, I think you mean fire,"

"Fire…" she repeated.

Itami tapped his ear bud. "All units keep a close eye on our perimeter," he said. "Davies, Kyon take to the skies. Keep your eyes open,"

"Sir," the two replied before getting out of their vehicles and flew up above the convoy.

As they did Itami then noticed Rory pull up next to him with a smile on her face as she looked at the pillar of smoke. "What is it Rory?" she asked.

She licked her lips. "I smell blood," she said making eyes widen slightly.

OOOOO

The walls of Italica were under siege by the remnants of the allied armies. The Imperial forces inside the walls of Italica along with a citizen militia did their best to fight off the remnant forces. Arrows flew into the air taking a few of the bandits down causing their ranks to become more disorganised.

"We can break their centre!" Princess Pina yelled to her forces.

Hot oil was then poured down the walls burning the bandits who got to close and created a smoke screen.

"Damn it," the bandit leader muttered as he watched his forces get decimated by the second wind of the Italican forces. "Fall back!" he yelled raising his sword. "Fall back,"

The bandit forces then began to pull back to their fallback point. Pina sighed as she saw this but then turned to look at the devastation inside the walls of the trade city.

"Norma, Hamilton!" she yelled. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm alive! Somehow!" Hamilton called out as she rested on a barricade near the gate.

Pina walked down the stairs as Grey shook his head. "How cold," he muttered. "Are you not concerned about me, Princess?" he asked.

"Your safety was never in doubt Grey," she said as she walked up to him making him laugh out loud.

After shorting the remining survivors Pina and Hamilton made their way to the mansion that they where staying at. As they walked something nagged at Hamilton as she walked next to the princess.

"Princess why are we fighting bandits here?" she asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" the princess shot back getting attention from the people around her. "When we got word of a large armed group invading Countess Formar's territory, I assumed it was the other world soldiers. So, we raced here, only to find the remnants of our own allied troops turning to banditry!" she yelled before noticing someone to yell at. "You there! There's no time to rest! The bandits will come back! Before then we must dispose of the bodies and reinforce the barricades! I've sent a message to the main unit. Three days! If we can last for three days, my knights will be here to help! Hang in there until then!" and with that she turned and walked by up the long flight of stairs with the stress of command weighting heavily on her.

OOOOO

The mansion that the Princess and her party were staying in sat in a walled off section of the city. It was one of the more secured places in the city while this battle was waging. As soon as the princess walked in, she found a room and fell onto the chair sighing with relief. But that didn't last long as a voice called to her.

"Excuse me, your highness," she opened her eyes to see a butler standing close to were she was sitting down.

"What is it?" she asked. "Do you want to surrender?" she asked as she reached over for a drink.

"No, I'm just wondering if there's some way to avoid fighting," he clarified.

"It's easy. Open the gates," she said with a sarcastic tone before taking a sip. "In exchange you'll lose everything. He men will be killed, the women raped. I'm confided I could remain sane after one or two had their way with me, but not fifty or a hundred,"

"Surly you jest," the butler said.

"If you don't like the sound of that, then you must fight," she said shutting down any kind of argument he would come up with. "As hateful as war may be, if you ger fixated on avoiding it, you'll end up losing everything,"

"Here you are your highness," the head maid said as she walked in carrying a tray.

She set it down and Pina took one of the round biscuits from it and began to nibble on it. "Neither it's flavour nor quality are sufficient," she muttered.

"If you fill your stomach with rich flavours when you're so exhausted, you'll surly fall ill," she commented speaking from experience, something the Princess picked up on.

"You've been though a battle like this before?" she asked.

"I once lived in the town of Rosa," the head maid clarified. "It's Imperial territory now,"

"I see," the princess muttered seeing what the woman was talking about.

The meaning behind it was simple, before the town was peaceful but now it wasn't. She finished up the food resented to her with no more complaints.

"I'll be resting in the guest room," she said before turning to the door. "If there's important news send it directly to me," she walked towards it while the head maid stepped to one side.

"Of course," the woman bowed.

The princess stopped before she opened the door and glanced back at the maid. "What will you do if I don't wake up?"

"Splash water on your face until you do," the maid smiled.

"Excellent," was all the princess said before she left.

OOOOO

Laying on the bed, the princess was too burdened to let herself fall asleep. Instead she just looked up at the celling.

"We've only a few trained soldiers," she muttered. "And the civilian conscripts, the brave ones are dying first. Morale has hit rock bottom. This is how my first battle goes? This…" her mind fell asleep and dreams of her childhood and now filled her mind.

The pain, the stress, the frustration… all came back and now she had a change to prove that women could be knights as well. But this didn't last long as a splash of water over her body made her wake up. Looking up she saw Grey and the head maid standing in front of her with the latter holding a bucket, she sat up quickly.

"What's happened?" she asked quickly. "Is it the enemy?"

"I'm not sure if they are enemies or allies," Grey admitted as he adopted a thoughtful look. "Just come with us please,"

OOOOO

At the east gate Pina and Hamilton watched though a hole in the wall as strange metal things approached. They were green making her think that these could be those who took out the dragon, but she wasn't sure.

"What is that?" she asked unconsciously.

"A- an armoured carriage maybe?" Hamilton suggested.

"No, that's forged iron," Pina said as whatever they were stopped.

"Who goes there?" Norma yelled. "If you aren't enemies then show yourselves!"

The sound of fire then made them look up to see two people land either side of the green carriages.

"Where did they come from?" Grey practically yelled as someone emerged from the back of the lead carriage holding a staff.

"That staff," Pina muttered. "A true Lindonite mage?" as she spoke a blonde elf then emerged. "And an elf? True magecraft and spirit magic can make can make for a nasty combination," she said in surprised but the next was truly surprising. "Rory Mercury?" she asked almost losing her voice.

"Is that the famous Rory the Reaper?" Grey asked.

"Yeah," Pina confirmed. "I saw her once at a national religious service,"

"But why would an Apostle of Emloy really join with a bunch of brigands?" Grey asked.

"Knowing that bunch they might," she said making Grey look to her with a concerned look. "The deeds of their god, to me, seem to be no more than simple whims. If the priests heard that, there would be trouble. I'm sure, but the words of their god are nonsense anyway," as she said that more people in strange armour exited from the carriage.

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that," Grey said pulling away while Pina and Hamilton watched as the strangers approached.

"What will we do, Princess Pina?" Hamilton asked.

Pina pulled away looking at the crowed gathered behind them before turning to her friend. "If Rory's church had joined forces with the bandits, Italica would have fallen already,"

"That's true," Hamilton said nervously.

"But there's no proof that they aren't our enemies," she said 'what do I do?' she thought before the was a band on the gate. "If they are not enemies, though, then we must get them on our side!"

"Princess," Grey explained as she pulled up the holding rod and opened the door.

"Welcome," said to the new commers but they weren't looking at her but at something on the floor.

Her eyes wondered down to see one of the green soldiers laying on the floor moaning. She must have pushed the door a little too hard and pushed him off balance.

"Was that… my doing?" she asked with the elf, mage and oracle nodding but the others just laughed.

OOOOO

After pulling the man in green behind the gates Chuka pulled out the water canteen from the Itami's belt and looked to the woman while splashing his face.

"What were you thinking?" she asked. "You didn't realise someone might be in front of the gate? Even a Dwarf or commonote would be more careful! Not checking makes you worse than a goblin!"

As she said that Itami opened his eyes only to have Rory look down at him with a smile. "Oh, you're awake," that made him sit up and look around.

"Oh, are we inside the gates?" he asked before his radio activated.

"Lieutenant are you done with your nap?" Kurata asked.

People just stared at him as they had never seen a radio before, but Itami ignored them and just pressed his ear bud. "I'm alive, I'll find out where stand then contact you. Stay on standby,"

"Understood," Kurata confirmed.

"So, who's going to explain what's going on?" and all eyes turned to the woman who knocked him over.

"Huh me?" she asked.

"Impudent fools!" a brown-haired woman then yelled. "This is an affront to the third Imperial Princess, Pina Co Lada!"

"Imperial princess?" Itami asked with a confused voice.

After some introductions, Pina brought them to the walled off mansion.

"This fortress city, Italica, stands strategically at the intersection of the Tessaria and Appia highways making it a major commercial hub too," she said as she, Itami, Chuka, Rory and Leiei walked down the hall of the mansion. "For generations it's been ruled by the Counts of Formar, Imperial Nobility. But when the last count died suddenly, the three daughters left behind struggled for dominance. The eldest and middle sister had already married into other families. They fought over who would be the guardian of the rightful heir, the youngest sister, Myui,"

"Family power struggles huh, seems like that happens in every world," Itami muttered.

"Itami, I've been meaning to ask how you can understand people without knowing their language," Leiei then said.

"Ah," he muttered pulling out his ear piece. "It's a universal translator, with the hostages we have we've been able to get enough words and how the language works and put it into here," he said as he then placed it back in his ear.

"Then the empire sent the expeditionary force to the other world," Pina then said making Itami look to her with an odd look. "The head of every family was expected to lend their troops into battle there. None returned. As a result, the security situation in Italica deteriorated quickly, to the point were defending the city is proving difficult now," they then came to the door and Pina turned to the visitors. "Behind this door lies the current ruler of Italica and countess of Formar, Myui," she then opened the door.

Inside sat at one of the chairs was a young girl in a pink dress. "A child?" Itami questioned.

"I believe the countess turns eleven this year," Leiei added added.

"While she is head of the family, it's too much to ask her to lead an army," Pina said as she walked over to stand next to the heiress. "As such I'm taking commander in her stead,"

"I see," Itami muttered.

After that introduction Pina brought them to one of the meetings rooms and had wine brought in. As it was set on the table Itami made Pina and offer to which she couldn't refuse.

"Your saying you'll help us correct?" she asked in a surprised tone.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "We cannot sell the wyvern and dragon scales with all of this going on,"

"Very well," Pina said seeing a benefit. "We'll have you guard the south gate,"

"Sounds good to me,"

OOOOO

The gates to Italica opened and the four unknown carriages rolled in. People stopped and watched as these strange things roll into the gates of their city. Once inside people claimed out of them wielding strange weapons and armour. They all lined up and began to do some add things. From one of the battlements Pina watched them as they prepared for combat.

"Do you think that these are the soldiers in green people are talking about?" Hamilton asked. "The ones who killed the flame dragon?"

"So, it seems," Pina said as she looked at them with a hesitant look.

"Was it really wise to let them in?" her friend asked.

"We don't have a choice," the princess admitted. "We need to use whatever we can,"

Inside the Raven, Itami was on the radio to Alnus command to apprise them of the situation. The commander on the other end was not happy with the news.

"You're not coming back today?" a man with a thick Texan accent yelled earning looks form the locals. "What are you talking about Lieutenant?" thoughts of boot camp came back to him.

"We've got caught up in a battle here," he tried to explain.

"I'm questioning why you aren't more concerned about this!" the man yelled. "The UN council has summoned you; you need to get back here now!"

"Oh that, well sir I have a bit of a request," he said with a bit of a smile.

With the sun setting, Recon team 3 stat up above the battlements of the south gate keeping an eye out. Bear used his eyepiece to get a look at a three-man scout team.

"You see them?" Itami asked.

"Da," Bear added. "Zey seem to be skouts. Zeirrr main forrrce is behind zem. Five orrr six hundrrred I'd say,"

"Think they're after the south gate?" Itami asked.

"It's possible," Bear admitted looking to the squad commander. "Zey don't have enough men to surrround city. norrrth side stands against sharrrp cliff, so zey'rrre prrrobably going to koncentrrrate zeirrr forrrces on other thrrree gates. But what vorrries me is …"

"I know," Itami said as he leaned against the wall. "We're a decoy. There's only 12 of us defending he south gate, which the bandits broke though before. That Princess plans to make this one look undefended as bait. Then she'll finish the battle at the second line of defence behind us. A classic tactic,"

"But vill enemy fall forrr zat?" Bear asked.

"She's the commanding officer here, right?" Itami asked with a sigh. "So, we've got to listen to her, don't we?" he then realised something. "Oh right, tell them we don't need a campfire," the team nodded and got to work.

Itami watched at the team move the fire standards from the battlement stairs. As he watched Kyon called him.

"Squad commander," she said walking up to him. "Your eyepiece," she said handing him a blue screen with an ear like attachment.

"Oh thanks," he said before looking to one of the squaddies while Kyon walked off. "Furuta!" he called. "The final protective line should follow along the forts walls,"

"Right," the rifleman said before looking around trying to get a good idea of defence.

"Hey Itami," Rory then called getting his attention. "Why are you helping the princess of an empire that's supposed to be your enemy?" she asked.

"To protect the townspeople," he replied.

"Are you serious?" she asked before noticing another aura around him.

"Yeah," he said as he fitted his eyepiece to his helmet. "The EDF was made to help people, granted people had different ideas in mind but we know what we fight for," he then pointed to the EDF winged globe. "When we join, we take an oath to protect, not matter who we fight. We make an oath to this flag to protect and that is what we do,"

Rory smiled. "Emloy is the god of war," she said. "He does not consider killing a sin. But that makes your motive very important. Lies and deception, taint the soul,"

"Well there is one more thing," he decided to add. "I want to show the princess it's better to be our friends, than try to fight us,"

"I like it," Rory smiled with sadistic glee. "I love it!" she declared. "You're going to terrorize her soul to it's very core!" she jumped onto the battlement wall. "If that's it, I'd be happy to help. It's been so long since I had a chance to go crazy. Can't wait!"

"Well I suppose…" he muttered.

OOOOO

Night soon fell all gates kept their eyes open for the bandit attack Norma just stood looking into the darkness. After a while he noticed lights in the dark growing brighter, closer.

"Enemy attack!" he yelled as the fire arrows hit and they took cover. "Archers return fire!" he ordered.

The civilian militia open fired with their arrows but because of the darkness they couldn't see what they hit. In fact, they hit nothing as the bandits used their shields to stop any incoming arrows. They were in a tight formation wither their shields above their heads keeping them safe. The bandits were going to try again as they moved up to try and set up ladders.

"Send a message to Princess Pina!" Norma said while his archers did their best to take as many of the bandits out as possible. "The enemy's attacking the east gate!"

The messenger ran as fast as he could to

"The east gate?" Pina asked in surprise as she got the news.

At the south gate, Recon team three just looked at the glowing ball in the desistance. Much to Rory's annoyance.

"Weren't they going to attack us here?" she asked.

"0311 hours," Itami muttered. "Perfect time for a night attack,"

"Zey maybe bandits, but zey arrre trrrained soldierrrs," Bear added.

"Just like the Kindred," Jack added.

"Has the east gate requested reinforcements?" Kurata asked.

"Not yet," Davies answered making all eyes look to the glow in the distance.

The attack was increasing with intensity as ladders managed to be put up against the wall. Archers tired to stop them, but a spirit mage used wind magic to redirect the arrows. In response one of the militiamen used his axe to take out one of the ladders. It falls back taking out a few of the soldiers while an archer took him out.

"Your no match for us!" the archer called out rallying his fellow bandits.

They managed to start getting on top of the battlements and began to attack the weakened militia forces. Norma charged in with one of the bandits and slashed him across the chest. The weakened soldier tried to attack but missed and fell down dead with a smile on his face. It creeped him out.

"Have they come here seeking a place to die?" he asked.

As he said this Pina, Hamilton and Grey made it to the gate. All the princess saw was a slaughter.

"It fell so easily…" she muttered looking onwards. "I had no idea reality can be so different from one's plans," the sound of moving wood then met her ears and they saw two bandits pull the gate open to let the rest of their forces inside.

The battle had begun.

OOOOO

General Hamza stood in his office. Inside were 8 commanders and their seconds that the EDF had sent with him as his command staff.

"Ok listen up!" the general yelled. "Recon group 3 has received a request from the city of Italica's representative, Pina Co Lata, to provide support for local peacekeeping operations. They are requesting additional support,"

"I'll handle it sir!" an African commander yelled. "My combat group will assist,"

"No!" a voice with a thick Texan accent yelled. "Ground forces will take too long to get there. General, my Airborne group can get there faster than any ground forces,"

"We also got the speakers working!" his second said. "Wanger is all ready to go,"

"Finally!" the Texan yelled as he adjusted his hat.

Hamza just smiled. "Ok, the 101rst airborne will go. Speed is essential here, we need to get there quickly,"

"Sir!" the commanders yelled ad they poured out.

It didn't take long for the 101 Airborne combat group to get ready as their gunships and dropships were already ready to take off at a moments notice. Hamza watched as they took off with jet troopers following them. They headed towards the rising sun in the distance. This was a show of power to the empire, one way or the other this war would end.

OOOOO

More and more bandits began to pour into Italica with speed. On top of the battlements Norma, with a group of militiamen fought off the bandits. But the quality of skill was staggering. These bandits were former military, making them a major threat. This battle wasn't going to be easy.

"Defend this area with your lives!" Norma called out. "This is our last stand,"

As the militiamen moved as one of the bandits the tried to impale Norma on his spear. But the knight moved quickly out of the way and thrust his sword into the bandit killing him. Another bandit cam in from behind and managed to get a slash in. Norma turned to attack but was ganged up by two more bandits who plunged their swords into his back. As the pulled back what was lest of Norma's life made him stagger and was about to fall off the battlements before the bandit commander trust his sword though the dead man's torso.

"The enemy commander has been slain!" he declared. "Listen up men! Now this is war!" as he spoke, he tossed Norma's dead body off the battlements like a rag. "The murder and death we saw at Alnus, which our fellow soldiers never saw!" he raised his sword and the people cheered. "We will kill the enemy and die satisfied! That shall be our hymn to the war god Emloy, the god of war!" shields bashed, spears pounded on the ground with a cheer. "Here we have found our war!" the bandits cheered and advanced. "The knight Norma has been slain!"

Nearby Pina just gritted her teeth and pressed her nails into the palms of her hand so hard that she drew blood.

"Norma…" was all Hamilton said.

"The east gate has fallen!" one Pina's commanders. "Civilians have entered combat! They're requesting reinforcements!"

"We have none left to send!" Pina countered.

Over at the south gate, Recon team 3 just watched as Rory was acting rather weird. The way she was acting made the faces of all round go red.

"At this rate," she moaned as if she was in heat. "I'm going to go crazy!"

"What's going on?" Itami asked.

"The souls of the soldiers who died on the battlefield are being sent to Emloy though her body," Leiei said in her monotone voice not being affected by the sight. "It affects her like an aphrodisiac might,"

"Well," Davies said turning away. "That explains a lot,"

Rory cried out a bit more as Kyon walked up. "This looks bad," she muttered.

"Can we do anything to help?" Itami asked.

"I believe all she has to do is fight," Leiei answered.

"Have we heard anything from the east gate?" Jack asked as he looked over to the glowing sight of the east gate.

"None," Chun- Li answered.

"We have to guide the reinforcements too," Itami added much to his growing annoyance.

Over at the east gate the situation was going from bad to worse as the highly trained bandits took on the poorly trained civilian militia. They didn't even stand a change.

"Where are the men in green?" on asked before his face was smashed with a with a ball and chain.

Several people soon hit by a massive ball and chain welded by a massive metal masked man who roared. Panicking the rest of the militia. This wasn't a battle anymore; this was a slaughter.

"If this keeps up, they are going to break through the bulwarks too," Grey said in fear as he watched the elite troopers walk in. "If that happened the city will be pillaged. You must order the people to evacuate,"

"If only my knights were here," Pina muttered.

Back at the south gate Itami made his mind up.

"Bo-Ra," Itami yelled. "Stay with Rory, keep her safe,"

"Right," she said as she got down to the same height as the oracle. "Hold on, we'll be going in a moment,"

Rory then reached out to the angel's shoulder and pushed herself off the battlements and towards the fight.

"Move!" Itami yelled. "Angel, Davies fly over there and lend Pina support!" he ordered. "Bear, Jack, Verona, Chun-li, you're with me!" he yelled.

Everyone nodded and moved. Angel and Davies jumped into the air and flew towards the fight while Chun-li jumped in her mech and the others got into one of the ravens. They drove off after the apostle of Elmoy, as they did Itami was on the radio.

"101," he called. "The enemy is at the east gate; I repeat the enemy is at the east gate. Marking the target with a flare!"

OOOOO

The 101 airborne flew towards the battle zone at speed, but they had sent several jet troopers forward as scouts.

"We'll reach the combat zone in 5 minutes!" one of the pilots called.

"Understood," the radio operator said on the lead gunship. "Reports indicate that fighting has already begun inside the east gate,"

"Understood, head for 10'oclock," the Texan ordered. "All units move into attack position,"

As he said that the formation of helicopters moved into a more lose formation allowing them to drop people and attack with ease.

"Start the music," the commander then said and his second turned on Ride of the Valkyries. "Tonight, we ride with the Valkyries!" he declared.

Soldiers across the airborne group then readied themselves with weapons in hand from the humble Anteater to the massive multi-barrelled breaker chain gun. The Empire made a mistake taking on the EDF, these were people who fight tooth and nail, skin and bone, life for life against the aggressors. These people, welding swords and shield would not stand up to the men and women of the EDF.

OOOOO

As Itami shot a flare into the sky Rory landed in front of the bulwark sending a shockwave around making people took to what made the wind blow. An axe welding soldier then tried to charge her but she used her glave and sent him flying into a wall with a smile on her face. But before anyone could do anything else the sound of jets met their ears making them look up. Davies and Angel landed in front of the bulwark. Davies had a bit of a lax attitude, but Angel smiled with an evil look on her face.

"Right or left?" Davies asked.

"Right," Angle said as she drew the plasma sword from her back.

As she drew it, the edges of it glowed blue she then charged in to the right side. A couple of the bandits tried to charge in. One of them attacked but Angel blocked it at and as metal met plasma, the blade was cut in two shocking people around. The soldier didn't have time to react a Kyon then cut him if half. What shocked his fellow soldiers was the lack of blood that poured out of the two halves of his body. As soon as his body hit the floor another nose made people stop and look around. But Kyon and Davies knew that sound all to well.

Looking up the sight of EDF helicopter gunships was a welcome one. They opened up their guns on the bandits on the outside of the gate taking them down fast and dropping troopers down. as they did this two of the bandits tried to use a ballista on the walls but a gunship stopped them. The sweeping and clear tactics of the gunships prevented the bandits from getting a good foothold against the EDF forces. A few tried to let off a few arrows, but this act was in vain as they got cut down by the machine guns.

Rory looked on impressed before the bandits tried to take her out. But the way she moved as so graceful like a dancer, that they couldn't get a hit on her. She beheaded them with ease, as another group tired to get into a tortoise formation. But that was nothing as she swung the glave crushing the bandits with ease. A mountain of a man then charged up behind her but White Bear stopped him. He smiled and pushed the bandit back who tried to stop him. The combination of the PA gear and the big Russians muscles prevented him from doing anything.

Bear smiled as he ripped one of the man's arms off like it was little more than paper before he landed a punch onto the man's face. He punched so hard that his skull collapsed. Leaving him falling down dead.

"Contact!" Davies then yelled. "D-class creature!" he shot up into the air as an ogre walked in.

Kyon and Bear were about to attack but the squad's Kuratus mech charged in pushing the ogre back outside of the gate. The bandit's stopped and watched as this mechanical beast pushed one of the biggest things in their force with ease. The mech the picked the ogre up and threw it a good 10 meters before pulling out the auto cannon and firing. The high explosive rounds detonated against the ogre's flesh ripping him apart with ease. It fell down dead allowing Chun li to focus on the bandits around her.

Rory watched with fascination but an explosion sent the enemy commander onto the top of her blade making her look to him.

"This isn't war," he said as the life ebbed from his body.

But she didn't care, the bodies around told here that this wasn't a war for him. Not in his twisted broken min, this was slaughter. She let her blade fall before pulling it up and killing him. Before she could do anything Kyon flew into the air and Itami grabbed Rory in a bridal style and ran out of the bulwark with bear close behind. She soon found out why. Looking up she saw one of the iron flying machines that the EDF used to fly, but this one was thinner, less bulky. Once bear left the area the from weapon opened out with a loud noise.

Everything that was left inside of the bulwark was turned to dust. Pina and Hamilton watched as the helicopter hovered for a few more moments.

"An iron Pegasus?" Hamilton asked.

"What is that?" Pina asked before she looked at the destruction the men in green ad wrought. "Absolute violence that no human can withstand, the power to crush everything. A power that denies, pride, honour, and everything else," her mind buzzed there was no doubt in her mind now, these people could not be beaten. "Is this the goddess mocking us? How fail, worthless we humans are,"

As she said that she then witnesses more troops get out of their iron beasts and rounded up the rest of the bandits. The ones who were left alive anyway. This was over.

After a few hours, the mop up operation with the EDF helping the local civilians. It was hard to believe to the locals that the EDF could manage such a feat. But now was the time for repairs and not questions. Pina looked over the dead body of Norma was he lay covered by the imperial flag.

"It's over," Grey muttered. "The brigands are defeated. Yes, we are victorious," but that last remark pissed the princess off.

"No," she said with anger. "It was the Priestess of Emloy, Rory, and the EDF who won," she said with growing anger. "Not me, and the EDF is our enemy which continues to occupy the holy hill of Alnus," as she said that Hamilton looked at her with wide eyes coming to the same conclusion as the princess. "In intending to save Italica, have I not called in a far more terrifying force? Those iron beasts and powerful magics whipped out those brigands out in but a moment. If they turned towards Italica…" her mind then drifted imagining as if she was a prisoner of war. "…then both I, and Myui, the countess of Formar, would quickly be turned into prisoners and one of the Empires agricultural areas would fall to the enemy. And the people would welcome them with cheers and open arms,"

"That's not true…" Hamilton tired to say but the princess shot that down.

"Can you be so sure?" she asked. "They were the ones who truly saved the town," both her subordinates fell silent. "If they were to demand our surrender, I might respond by falling to my knees and begging for mercy, and kissing the soles of their feet,"

OOOOO

After a good few hours of clean-up Itami, Chuka, Rory, Leiei and Commander Clyde 'Sly' Riley, the leader of the 101rst Airborne, stood in the throne room of the mansion listening to what the Princess had to offer. Itami was less then happy however as his right eye was black and blue due to touching Rory is a less than appropriate place.

"We are grateful to your rescuing Italica," Hamilton announced holding a scripture. "And would like to negotiate your compensation. The second article, the safety of a delegation, and its expenses, will be taken care of in accordance with Imperial protocol. And the third article, trading rights for the Alnus corporative, poses no problem, either. But I'd like you to understand that the rights to the prisoners lie with us,"

Clyde nodded. "We understand that labour is necessary to rebuild Italica," he said in a different language to what Itami spoke surprising the princess and Hamilton but Leiei translated for him. "But we want assurances that they'll be treated humanely,"

"No translator?" Itami asked and Clyde shook his head.

"Broke," he spoke in Japanese.

"Humane…ly?" Hamilton asked.

"To be treated well as one would treat a friend," Leiei clarified. "Or a relative,"

"Would friends or relatives attack a peaceful town pillaging and killing it's people?" Hamilton asked with annoyance.

"Those are their rules," Leiei said. "But they have clarified that they do not expect them to be treated like royalty. But they have said no torture, interrogations, or any kind of aggression against them,"

"Understood," Hamilton nodded. "That settles the treatment of the prisoners. Al that's left is the military withdraw and treaty period,"

Clyde spoke and Leiei translated. "We have no problems as it written,"

Hamilton then looked to Pina who nodded, she then turned to the EDF delegation. "Then that concludes the negotiations,"

OOOOO

Pina relaxed on a wall as she talked to Grey. "How did it go?" he asked.

"They took several prisoners and asked us to take care of any diplomatic delegations security and expenses," she said. "And released from all trade taxes in Italica,"

"Those are rather small demands for the victor," Grey said thinking about what motives they could have. "So, will they occupy the city?"

Thankfully she shook her head. "They're leaving immediately," she said.

"Then they barely gained anything out of this," Grey said surprised. "I've never heard of an army that would accept such conditions,"

"Yes, to make them give up the natural rights of a victor would take incredible negotiation skills," she said before starting to walk off. "I would love to know what kind of magic Hamilton used.

OOOOO

But Hamilton wasn't having the best day either as she looked at the list of demands that the EDF had provided trying to understand it while Itami was nearby pointing at the prisoners they were going to take.

"Her, her and her," he said pointing at one of the demi-humans.

"The one with the feather in the hair?" Kyon asked.

"Yep," he nodded as Hamilton thought that looking at their demands from another angle would show their true motives.

"Vu'fe only bicked vomen," Verona noted.

"That's just a coincidence," he tried to wave off.

"That seems unlikely," Angel said looking at her officer with an odd look.

"It's a coincidence," he insisted.

"Ein coincitence huh?" Verona looked at him with the same look as Kyon.

"Yep a coincidence," he said making them sigh.

"Vell, I can Hunderstand zat ve can't leaffe zee girls here," Verona admitted while Kyon looked to Hamilton who was looking at the treaty a little too closely.

A short time later, the helicopters took off getting waves from the locals to which the EDF waved as well. As they took off Jack looked to Itami.

"Shouldn't we get going too?" he asked.

"We should, but we need to wait for the girls selling the wyvern scales," he sighed.

"Oh da, zat's why ve'rrre herrre in firrrst place," Bear nodded but that did nothing for Itami's mood.

OOOOO

At one of the trader posts Rory, Leiei and Chuka were talking to one of the local traders who was still in town.

"Why'd we get caught up in all this trouble?" he asked as Leiei produced a large wyvern scale.

"I want to sell this," she said.

"Oh," he said picking it up. "A wyvern scale," he asked picking it up. "From it's size it was a full grown one,"

"Yes," Leiei nodded.

"How many do you have," he asked before she produced a bag shocking the man.

"200 scales," she said opening the bag.

"2…200," he asked with a surprise.

"I just received release from all taxes in this territory," she added.

"You became a special merchant?" he asked with mounting surprise. "Congratulations," he as he began to tally the scales and amount. "Then that would be 200 gold cinque pieces and 4000 silver denarii. But after the last battle we've been low on silver. I can pay you 1000 denarii immediately,"

"And the rest?" Leiei asked.

"And I can give you a draft for 2,000 immediately, but…" he trailed off.

"All right, I'll give you a discount of 1,000 denarii. In exchange I want information worth 1,000 denarii," Leiei then offered.

"Information?" he asked with interest. "Of what type?"

After talking out the deal the merchant's apprentice watched as the three girls met up with the men in green.

"Information on the markets for 1,000 denarii?" his apprentice asked.

"If it's got a price, it's a product," he said with a smile looking at the scale. "And our motto is 'top quality products', right?" he asked.

OOOOO

The drive back to HQ was so far peaceful with Rory, Chuka and Leiei sleeping on one another in the back of the humvee.

"I'm tired Kurata," Itami moaned as he yawned.

"I know the feeling," the driver answered. "That was a rough fight,"

"It was horrible," Itami complained. "I'm exhausted,"

"You don't get to komplain about something being horrrible orrr exhausting until you go head firrrst into ant nest!" Bear then yelled from one of the ravens.

Kurata smiled but something up ahead made him stop hard but that pushed people from their seats and onto the floor.

"Smoke ahead!" Kurata then said.

"What again?" Itami asked as he grabbed his binoculars. "It's coming this way, bit it's preventing me from what's there,"

"I see something, a tiara," Kurata added.

"A tiara, okay," his commander mutter before double taking. "Wait a tiara?"

"Blond hair!" the driver said.

"What?"

"Ringlets…" he continued while Itami moved in closer.

"Ringlet?" he asked as he looked down his binoculars again.

"I've sighted one blond with ringlets," Kurata said excitedly. "One beautiful girl in boy's clothes, and several hot chicks behind them,"

"Can I slap them?" Kyon asked before Itami's tone changed.

"Those are roses," he said.

"They are roses," Kurata confirmed.

"That tri-coloured rose crest…" Itami muttered.

"The knights the princess spoke of?" Jack asked.

"I've never actually seen a girl with ringlets like that before," Kurata admitted pissing off Kyon even more.

"So, the ringlets girl is the yellow rose, and the one with short hair nest to her is the white rose?" Davies asked.

The knights slowed down as they approached team 3's vehicles. "Stay alert, do not open fire," Itami ordered over the radio. "No overt signs of hostility, it might violate the treaty," he got a call from each of the vehicles as the knights walked up next to their vehicles.

"Where did you come from?" the one with short white hair asked.

"We returning from Italica," Jack replied.

"To where?" she asked.

"Alnus…" he was going to continue but found a sword in his face.

"The hill of Alnus?" she asked making the others draw their own weapons.

"Hold fire," Itami said as the blonde grabbed Jack by the collar.

"Are you the enemy from the other world?" she asked.

"Excuse me," Itami said getting her attention while holding his hands up. "Has my man there done something to offend you?" he asked but got stopped by a sword pointing at him.

"Surrender!" the short haired girl demanded.

"Now, we can work something…" he tried to say but the blond slapped him.

"Don't shoot!" he ordered as her heard the clicks of guns. "RUN!" he yelled.

They didn't even hesitate pulling back and driving off leaving their commander to the mercy of the female knights.

EDF equipment:

Plasma sword: This weapon was made due to the ever-mounting complaints of low ammo on the battlefield. This was one of the causes of major casualties among the EDF. As such the plasma blade was made. However, due to the danger of using plasma as a cutting blade the project was in danger of being shelved.

This is where the church of Jedism came in. After the aggressor came to earth more spiritual religions began to take over, one of them being Jedism who offered to help the EDF figure out how to use the plasma blades safely. This created the first real world order of Jedi who became CQC trainers for the EDF.


	6. Chapter 6

"Look, I know this may sound crazy but I swear I'm telling the truth," Itami muttered as he was pulled along the gravel road leading back to the Italica's mansion.

The ringlet knight just kicked him in the ribs. "Silence, the princess will decide your fate," she said as she and the short haired knight dragged him across the floor like a piece of meat.

He was heavy but they didn't want to admit it. They suspected that his odd armour was the reason, but again they wanted to prove that they were as strong as the rest of the Imperial army. Itami was battered and bruised to the point where he was just forcing himself to stay awake. Thankfully his team told him that they got back to Italica and the two knights were in for a very big surprise.

But the look that they got from the locals didn't go unnoticed. It made the two knights curious about what they were being looked at for. However, they just ignored and dragged Itami to the mansion. As they pulled the doors open and him inside, they were greeted by the princess who stood in her amour waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. Next to her stood Verona and Kyon who just looked at the two knights.

"Princess what's going on here?" the knight with ringlets asked.

"That man, let him go now," the princess with a firmness that told the two she was not in the best of moods.

They did as she asked and Verona ran up to Itami. "Wh… what's going on?" the short haired knight asked.

"The man who you unceremoniously dragged here. Was the one who defended Italica from the bandits who were attacking!" the Princess yelled shocking the two knights.

"What?" they yelled backing up and looking at the soldier that they dragged all the way here.

Verona produced a glowing green canister and injected it into him. Everyone who wasn't apart of the EDF just watched in fascination as the wounds and bruises disappeared from his body. He gave a moan in satisfaction before standing up like nothing happened to him.

"Ahh that feels better," he said cracking his limbs.

"H…how?" the ringlet knight asked with surprise.

"Energy gems," Verona said.

"Itami," Pina said as she bowed. "I'm so sorry that my subordinate did this, we will take any punishment you wish," she said hoping for the best.

"Ah do…." he was about to say but Bear walked in.

"Sorrry about zis Lieutenant," he said. "But Alnus kommand just kalled. Zey've made decision about zis little mess. Zey vish forrr Prrrincess kome to some talks as foundation as to what zey'll use in futurrre,"

"Really?" he asked with the big Russian nodding.

"Err what did he say?" the ringlet knight asked making Itami realise that Bear was speaking Russian without his translator.

"Sorry he was speaking his native language," he said to the knight before looking to the princess. "Princess Pina, my subordinates just informed me that our leaders wish to talk with you,"

Pina just looked at him in surprise.

OOOOO

Pina and her subordinates who dragged Itami, Bozes and Panache, sat in one of the meting rooms to discuss what happened. Pina explained what had happened while the Rose order tried to get to Italica as fast as they could. The beasts she saw, the weapons they used. The bandits didn't even stand a chance. She even told them about the strange requests they made, but this request for talks made her think about their motives. Not knowing how the EDF operated made it difficult for her to decide what to do with this meeting.

"Damn it," she muttered as Hamilton walked in with some food and drinks. "What do we do?"

"It may be prudent to go to their world and talk," Bozes suggested.

"I agree princess," Hamilton said as she took a seat. "We may have seen them in battle, but seeing their culture maybe we can understand how they fight why they fight and if we can defeat them," Pina nodded but what she saw of what the EDF can do she doubted that last part.

"I agree," she eventually said. "Even if we cannot defeat them, at least we can play for time. See what they want, why they want it and more. The more I think about it the less reason we have not to go. All of us should go," she said and the others nodded.

OOOOO

The next day rolled around and Kurata was still talking to the cat girl maid as both Pina's group and 3rd recon prepared to depart. Pina and her three subordinates walked down the stairs of the mansion and onto the gravel pathway. But as they did Jack eyed the clothing they were wearing.

"Are you going to be alright in those outfits?" he asked getting their attention.

"They are Imperial dignitary uniforms," Pina said with a prideful look.

"Right…" Davies muttered. "The thing is that, where we are going through the gate, it's going to be cold. That clothing may not be enough,"

The girls looked at each other with concerned looks. "Well we don't have anything to counter that," Pina then added.

"It's fine," Itami said dismissively. "We'll have something for you when we get to Alnus," just then a loud noise met their ears. "Ah finally,"

Everyone looked up to see tilt rotor aircraft fly in. Pina and Hamilton just looked in awe while Bozes and Panache just shared look that was a combination of surprise, awe, amazement and fear. The rotors moved so that they faced upwards and the craft soon landed. This was the Black Eagle, a smaller variation of the Hawk heavy lifter with only two tilt rotors instead of four. Once it landed the back of it fell open and the pilot walked out.

"We're all good to go," he said.

Pina and her group gulped. "Come on, ladies first," Kyon smiled as she and Verona lead the group onto the craft.

3rd recon soon followed and sat down on the free chairs while the pilot showed Pina and her retinue how to strap themselves in. As for Itami and his team, they didn't need to strap in as the Eagle had ports on each of the chairs that would attach itself to their PA Gear. It would lock onto the power packs on their back and keep them secured while it flew. As for their weapons, there was a port next to the seats that kept their weapons locked next to them. once sat they just locked their weapons at the ports before relaxing.

Pina and her group however were not relaxed, they were visibly nervous as the pilot finished strapping them in.

"This is a little uncomfortable," Bozes said as she looked down at her harness.

"It's meant to keep you safe," Leiei said as she finished strapping herself in.

The pilot then checked the harnesses and locking ports. Once he was satisfied, he walked up to the cockpit and began checks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank you for choosing EDF airlines," he began making 3rd recon smile if not laugh. "We pride ourselves on getting you apes to the battlefield as fast as possible. Today we'll be heading to Alnus hill. The staff will not come and serve food and drinks, there will be no movie or music and there are to tray tables. So, sit back and be prepared to be bored,"

"What are they laughing at?" Pina muttered as Hamilton grabbed her arm.

"I want to get off," she said. "No human should fly,"

"Bear with it," the princess muttered as she shared the same feelings.

The engines started up and within moments the Eagle took off and flew towards Alnus hill. Pina looked outside in amazement. They were flying, they were actually flying, she could hardly believe it. Everything below looked like ants and the fields looked peaceful. Far from the battle she saw the other day. Her retinue also looked out with a sense of amazement hardly believing it themselves.

"Such magic," Hamilton muttered, but Pina realised that whatever this was it wasn't magic.

"Hey boss," Davies then spoke up. "I've been meaning to ask, why didn't you try to escape from the knights? I mean you have the ranger badge and all,"

"Well I didn…." Itami tried to say but Kyon just yelled.

"What?" she asked looking at Davies. "He..." she pointed at Itami. "…has a ranger badge?!"

"Yeah," Davies muttered. "I thought you knew," as he said that Kyon slumped in her seat with wide eyes.

"I don't understand," Leiei then said. "What's so special about having this badge?"

"It's not about the badge itself, it's how you go about getting it," Kyon answered. "EDF training is hard enough that about 40% of applicants pass. But having a ranger badge? Take the most brutal training you can think of and times it by 10. Rangers are some of the most elite soldiers in the EDF. You go up against them, you won't live long enough to regret it,"

"I see," Leiei said in her deadpan tone but Rory looked to Itami with an interested eye.

Before anyone else could say anything, else Panache yelled out and pointed to Bear. "What's what with his hand?" she practically yelled.

Bear looked down to hand which was slowly tuning in a clockwise direction. After swearing in Russian, he held his arm out Jack who opened up his sleeve to show a metal skeletal arm. Pina and her retinue just shared in a combination of shock and horror. Jack pulled the sleeve back until he reached the elbow. The metal arm began just before the elbow. Bear then reached over with his other arm and twisted something with a grunt and the arm came away. Jack now held the metal arm before handing it back to Bear.

"W… what is that," Chuka asked.

"It's bionic arrrm," Bear said calmly. "When EDF soldierrrs get vounded to zis degrrree, ve arrren't disposed of. Ve get choice, kontinue to fight orrr sit back. I chose to fight and got zis …" he held up the arm. "…to fight again,"

That made Pina and her group think. Hamilton had heard what some of the EDF soldiers talked about and informed the Princess. They talked about a war that sounded so devastating, that what they just witnessed with the arm made some kind of sense. But the questioned remained in her mind. What happened in this other world?

Soon they reached Alnus hill and the Eagle landed. As the motors died down the passengers unstrapped their harnesses. The door opened up as they stood 3rd recon exited fist followed by Pina and her group. As she and her retinue walked out onto the floor of the EDF compound they looked around in awe. The place seemed like a city with the way it was constructed. High walls, defence towers and more. The beasts that they saw at Italcia were also here but there was more. Pina looked over to Leiei, she seemed like the best with information.

OOOOO

After arriving at Alnus, Pina and her group were given temporary accommodation for the night. According to the EDF general, the other side wasn't quite ready for talks. So, they were to spend the night at one of buildings made for refugees as they weren't prepared for VIP guess. But she wasn't interested in that, she was more interested in what the blue haired mage had in that pretty little mind of hers.

Leiei soon walked in with a tray of food and drinks for Pina and her group. "Leiei," Pina said as the mage walked in. "Thank you for coming,"

"I brought some food," she said setting the tray down on the table. "The food here is strange but nice," as she spoke, she took a seat opposite the Princess and picked up one of the bowls. "This is called miso, it's quite nice if a little salty,"

Pina looked at the watery substance before picking it up and taking a sip. A wave of heat pulsed though her body. She gave a soft moan as she drank a bit more then set it down on the table.

"So, I've asked you up here because I need to talk," she said. "I want to ask you about the EDF, who they are that sort of thing,"

"I will tell you what I know, but what I know is very little," Leiei said. "Ask away,"

Pina nodded before she began to ask. "Are all soldiers in the EDF mages?"

"No, the weapons they use care called guns. They use something that propels a rock at speed. But this is just one method," as she said that the shock on Pina's face became very clear. "They also use magnets to throw these disks that decimate a mountain,"

"That's impossible," Pina muttered.

"I've seen it myself, when they took down the flame dragon," Leiei said as she remembered what happened with the dragon.

Pina just nodded as she remembered the disk from Duran's room. "How many families are we dealing with?"

"If you are referring to noble families, none," Leiei said as she took a sip from her miso.

"But the flags…" Pina stuttered.

"Are nations, not noble houses. You are facing a united army, not single force. There are too many languages, cultural quirks for them to be from a noble family territory," Leiei stated as a matter of fact.

"How many?" Pina then asked. "How many nations?"

"25," the mage answered. "But from what I heard there's something close to 78 or more," The princesses' eyes could only widen in horror.

'78 nations or more?' she asked herself. 'We don't stand a chance,'

OOOOO

As the next day rolled around, Pina and her group met up with Rory, Leiei and Chuka, Itami, Davies and Kyon waited outside of the main HQ building for the vehicle that they were going to take. As they waited Pina eyed the EDF soldiers. They had exchanged their armour for some form of dress uniform. The way that the uniforms were maintained showed a great deal of discipline from the soldiers who wore it. She gulped wondering what to expect. They had been given coats due to the onset of winder in the other world, but it seemed to be unbelievable. A long black machine soon arrived and the doors opened.

The inside of the machine was large with leather seats laid around the side. Pina and her group claimed in first, then Rory, Leiei and Chuka then the three members from 3rd recon climbed in. Once in the door closed and the machine rode off into the direction of the gate.


	7. Chapter 7

The limo exited the Gate and the group inside looked out at the first sight of Japan. All except Leiei was amazed by it. Buildings made of glass and steel, streets paved with black stone and more. But it didn't escape their notice that the area around the gate had been sealed off from the rest of the city. A wall rose up from the ground with towers overlooking the entrance to the Gate and the Gate itself. The limo came to a stop and the door was opened. Pina raised an eyebrow at this.

"Any reason we are stopping?" she asked.

"Yeah," Itami answered with a sigh. "Technically you are now here illegally even if you are here on the invitation of the EDF. We need to get some documentation,"

Pina didn't fully understand but nodded and claimed out. As she did, she looked up into the sky at the towering buildings. They must have had master skilled builders in order for this to happen. She looked up in awe as did the others who climbed out.

"Amazing," she said. "How can they build such wonders?"

"Necessity," Leiei said. "As they expand and their population grows, they run out of land to hose people. So, they build upward instead of outward,"

"Makes sense," Boes admitted as she looked over to where Itami was talking to someone. "So, we are going to a museum first, right?" she asked no one in particular.

"From what I understand we are," Leiei said. "They want us to see what they have faced in the past,"

"It's a scare tactic then," Rory spoke as she smiled. "There's more than one to fight a war,"

Pina nodded as she then held her chin. "Makes sense," she muttered. "If they don't want to fight an all-out war, they would demonstight their power to force people into submission. If what we've seen is any indication the EDF have weapons capable of that but are afraid to use them,"

"Likely because that the weapons they have cause so much devastation that they cannot be used without good reason," Leiei suggested.

"That is a terrifying thought," Pina added before looking to the members of her retinue.

"Pr….Princess," Boes said pointing upward.

Everyone looked up and their eyes dropped. Sitting in the sky above them was a massive grey and blue ship that hovered of the city. It was rounded with several cylinders at the sides of it. Leiei, for once, also showed some emotion as her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"What is that?" Hamilton asked.

"That," Kyon said as she walked up to the group. "Is the Avenger-class Sky fortress the Fujin. It's the EDF's main command and control centre for the continent of Asia,"

"Continent?" Boes asked. "Does that mean that there are more of these flying fortresses?"

"Including the Fujin, there are seven. Each one has a crew of 3000 people to keep it airborne. Not only can it fly it can also float on water if need be," the looks on the visitors faces was too much and Kyon couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, I have your passcards," Itami said as he walked up to each of them. "Try to keep them on you. We don't intend to be separated, but these documents will show that you don't need a passport to be in the country,"

"Ok thank you," Pina said as she and others took the small card.

Before they had left for Japan, she and the others had their picture taken and sent to the administration section of the EDF who then created the passcards. But the meaning behind them was still lost on the visitors.

"Ahh you must be the hero of Ginza," a voice then said making eyes turn to an elderly man dressed in a long brown coat.

The man stood smiling but he had an air of shiftiness about him. This man was not to be trusted in any form if you had any sense.

"I'm Bond, EDF intelligence," he said. "I've been instructed to escort you and your tour group,"

"You're with the Public Safety," Itami said with a non-questioning tone.

"So, you can tell?" the man said with a smile. "Well that's a hero with a sixth sense for you,"

"No, I just know someone who works in Intel," Itami said

"Ahh yes, I know," Bond said as he pulled out a file and began to read it. "You had the second lowest grades in your class during officer training, and only avoided last place due to an injury another cadet had. After graduation and deployment, you rated 'just barely passing'. Your CO got pissed with you and shipped you off to the Ranger Academy, which you somehow finished before deploying back to the field. Poor personal evaluations kept you at Second Lieutenant. But after the Ginza incident, you were promoted to First Lieutenant," he smiles never left his face as he looked up at Itami.

"Well, you did your homework," the Lieutenant admitted.

"Slacker, Otaku. Your reputation on your posts is horrible. So how the hell you ended up in Special Operations is a mystery," Bond laughed.

"What!" Kyon yelled like a siren making all eyes look to her, "No way, no way! That's impossible! There's no way this Otaku is Special forces!"

"Well, he is," Bond laughed. "Him being a slacker helped with that,"

"Is there a problem with Itami being 'Special Forcers'?" Leiei asked.

"The Special forces are the elite of the elite," Bond answered. "They have many names, but the one that seems to have stuck is 'Death's Legion'. Because even in death they still fight. I assume that Kyon told you about the success rate of the Rangers?" the young witch nodded. "Well for Special forces, out of 1000 Rangers no more than 5 qualify to join,"

Rory's eyes widened at that. She was also told about the Ranger selection, but this made her mind buzz. What forced the EDF to push for such extreme selection measures? She looked to the EDF soldiers and expanded her senses. Nothing, whatever happened they had learned to keep it in. Something like that could only be done by a war that affected everyone in such a way there was no choice but to close that part of their minds to it.

They then climbed back into the limo with Kyon still crying and laughing at the same time. But the others just ignored her as they looked out at the Tokyo marvelling and the wonders of the city. Soon they came to a stop and Boze's eyes caught an advert with Kyon on it. The hologram danced around with singing. She looked over to Kyon with wide eyes.

"Are you royalty?" she said pointing out at the hologram.

Kyon laughed and smiled. "Nah, I'm just a singer and actor," that earned her some stared from the other. "Don't look at me like that, even soldiers have to do something outside combat,"

"She's part of an idol group called the Jet Angels. For lack of a better term, they are an EDF propaganda tool," Bond said with a smile as he looked to Kyon who just gave him a disapproving look. "Which is an open secret,"

No one said anything after that but soon the limo stopped outside a white building. Everyone claimed out and the visitors looked up at the grand building. It was rounded and large. It was almost like the senate building in the empire. Three sets of stairs rose up to the entrance with an obsidian stone along the sides. On top of them were hundreds of different flags that waved in the wind and along the floor was an uncountable number of flowers and gifts. Even the visitors knew the significance of those flowers and gifts. At the top of the stairs before the entrance stood a statue of several soldiers standing in front of a black EDF banner. Not the normal blue and white.

Rory was the first to walk up to the black stone and looked at the names on it. Each one was small to account the vast number of people who had died, but their names were still recorded. She reached out to touch the stone. As she did a wave of emotion it her making her drop her knees and dropped her scythe. As he did the others came running but she stopped them before they got closer.

"I'm ok, I'm ok," she said before standing. "But so many…" she then looked to the EDF who had taken their hats off. "How many?"

"Over a billion soldiers and close to 5 billion civilians," Bond answered.

"That's nearly 6 billion dead!" Pina yelled in surprise. "How could a war be like that?"

"That is what you are going to find inside," Davies said.

The group then walked up the stairs towards some glass doors. But as they readied to go in Chuka noticed something.

"You aren't coming?" the elf asked.

"No, what's inside there is…." Itami tried to find the right words.

"It wouldn't be right for us to walk inside," Bond said with his smile gone. "Inside there brings back too many painful memories. Those that do are braver than we are,"

Pina was about say something but Rory held her back. "We understand,"

With that Hamilton opened the doors and they all walked. "Why did you say that?" Leiei asked.

"Because I felt the pain of the war that they speak of," Rory said ending the conversation.

As they walked in a glowing blue woman appeared before them with a sweet smile.

"Greetings, and welcome to the Aggressor War memorial museum Asia. My name is Avina, I will be your guide through out the tour," she said.

The group looked to each other before asking the one question they were all wondering. "What was the Aggressor war?"

"The aggressor war was a series of two wars that lasted for a combined total of 9 years," the hologram said. "The first war lasted for two years with casualties both civilian and military reaching close to 500 million. But the first war was considered to be a total victory for the EDF. The second war is considered to be a pyrrhic victory as casualties for both military and exceeded 6 billion. The second war was considered to be humanity's final stand against the aggressors as we were on the brink of extinction,"

"Brink of extinction?" Panache with eyes wide. "Just who the hell are these aggressors?"

"The aggressors are an alien race of unknown origin," the hologram answered. "The weapons they used, the EDF had no defence against. We do not know their true intentions, why they invaded or if they are coming back. But when they do the EDF will be ready,"

As she said this Chuka moved to the main door and opened it. After the glass door and the hologram, there was another wall, a cream blue coloured wall with four doors. Each one was noticeable and unassuming. The reason was to show, nothing can prepare you for what you are about to witness. Chuka opened the door and what she saw made her scream and fall back. The others ran up to her and helped her back up.

"What happened?" Pina asked with concern.

"Monsters…." Chuka said. "They fought monsters,"

With that Rory opened the door and her eyes widened at the sight of a giant ant. A few of the others screamed but Rory, Leiei and Pina didn't. They just walked in without a second thought and looked at the enemy before them.

"Is this an aggressor?" Rory asked.

Avina appeared before them. "The giant ant was the standard unit of the aggressor army making up 65% of their main forces,"

"Of their main forces?" Pina asked as she looked at the statue of the ant before she realised and looked around.

Inside the museum were statutes of what the EDF fought. Machines twice the size of buildings, monsters from hell itself, weapons that could destroy an entire planet. The group wondered though the museum learning about the two aggressor wars. The enemies, the operations, the lives lost. It soon dawned on Rory what this was. This wasn't a show of force or an intimidation tactic, this was a show of resolve. If attacked the EDF would stop at nothing to end their attackers.


	8. Chapter 8

Before the Defence war, the EDF had a small navy only numbering around 107 ships. But these ships were considered to be the most advanced in any navy, mostly equipped with experimental and prototypes but still advanced. But after the Defence war, and the order came down that nations could only have a defence force and the rest needed to go to the EDF, the influx of new troops, ships and aircraft was a nightmare. This influx meant a lot of things, but one of the main things that they needed to do was to organise their new forces.

The focus on the navy was simple and complex at the same time. They had to retain, upgrade and organise practically all the navies of the world into one major force. This was easier said than done for many reasons, bad blood and cost were the main factors but there was also another that they had to deal with, resentment. Many of the older militaries, such as the British and French didn't like that their allegiances had change from a single nation to a multi-national organisation. Most of them even resigned from their posts.

But that was a godsend to the EDF. If people resigned from their posts, that would make it easier to train the soldiers. But it still meant that those who remained would need to be retained. That wasn't simple as that mean that they would have few ships patrolling the seas opening up routes for pirates and nations could go to war even with their small numbers. This problem was compounded by the fact that all navy ships needed to be upgraded if not mothballed and rebuilt.

So, the EDF prioritised what they needed to focus on. The upgrading and training could wait while they organised the navy. If they could do that, then the training and upgrading would fall into place with relative ease. Surprisingly it worked, but not without some major problems. One of the problems that they faced was the culture shock and bad blood. Many people from the middle east didn't like working with anyone in the west due to the number of invasions they faced in the past.

This was a major problem for the EDF. How could they get people to work together and not get at each other's throats? That was the most simple and dangerous option, they would fake a terrorist attack. Due to their victory against the Aggressors, the EDF had a lot of political and military options on their cards. If they asked for something, they had to get it. In this case, they asked for prisoners on death row and those with life sentences with undeniable evidence that they did it. This part couldn't have a paper trail, so what they did was use mercenaries to recruit these prisoners and hire them.

After that it was just to decide where'd they go. Some became pirates, and others became terrorists. This crated an enemy that the EDF could focus on and use the bond their forces. It worked very well and no one was the wiser. The only people who knew was EDF high command and several merc companies. But the latter knew to keep their mouth's shut and not keep any records about the incident making it very hard for anyone to investigate.

Captain Li Chan was one of those people who knew about the operation. As he looked out at the South China sea keeping his eyes out for pirates, he always wondered if it was worth it. They still had to face their own kind, but this time instead of binding the EDF together, it was to ensure humanities survival. They still had to face rouge units who simply didn't care about uniting but just plundering and creating their own little empires. Such was the new world. Li then moved back to sit in his chair, and just relaxed in it waiting for something to happen.

An hour passed before the radar operator called up. "Sir I'm picking up something," she said.

"On screen," Li said and the radar appeared on a screen in front of him.

A small dot flew at the edge of the radar without any kind of signal coming from it. "What is it a flock of birds?" his XO asked.

"Unlikely," the radar operator said. "That would mean a bunch of smaller signals, not one big one,"

"Any suggestions at what we are looking at?" Li asked.

"An aircraft of some kind," the operator replied. "Similar in size to our eagle dropships,"

"So, either one of them or an Osprey," the XO muttered. "Where did it come from?"

"East China exclusion zone, at least that's what it's baring says. According to the readings, it's headed for Japan," the operator answered.

"Isn't that where the Special region visitors are?" the XO asked and Li just nodded.

"Contact the Fujin," he ordered. "Tell them that the visitors may have some fans,"

OOOOO

_Helicopters few above over New York City as soldiers on the ground moved up or held a street. Giant ants moved though the streets and along the buildings with ease making hard for the soldiers on the ground to keep them contained. _

"_INCOMING!" someone yelled and a group of EDF soldiered dived out of the way as a laser hit close to their barricade and sent up debris into the air. _

_Without the barricade more ants moved though with the street with little effort now that the EDF had been moved away from their post. Scourgers backed up the ants taking out EDF tanks and aircraft, trying to force their way though onto the American mainland. Lady liberty had already fallen, and all that was left to do was evacuate the city. The blockades the EDF had set up were meant to keep the aggressors at by while they helped evacuate. But this did little thanks to the ants and scourgers. _

_The ants, with their numbers and ability to stick to walls, could overrun the barricades with ease, while the scourgers destroyed the tanks and aircraft. The EDF were being pushed back quickly. But soon reinforcements arrived. Abrams tanks rolled up with Humvee support and began to fire at the aggressors. While they did a man in a National guard uniform climbed off a tank and ran up to one of the EDF commanders. _

"_You in charge here?" he asked with a thick Californian accent. _

"_Yeah," the man said before pushing the officer out of the way as a stray laser round hit close to where they were standing. _

_A scourger moved up but was faced with a barrage from a group of several Abram's tanks and rocket launchers. Even alien technology cannot withstand that much kinetic force and survive. _

"_Sorry about that," the commander said as he helped up the National Guard officer. _

"_Not a problem," the officer thanked. "What's the saturation?" _

"_Bad, we just got word that more aggressor 'tanks' are on the way," the commander replied. "And a possible hive-ship is on the move," _

"_And with the evacuation at 78% compete," the officer muttered making the commander nod. "We need to hold out for as long as possible. We need more reinforcements," _

"_I'll get on the horn," the officer said before heading back to his tank. _

"_Make it quick," the commander said as he aimed and began to fire his rifle at the ants taking a few of them out. _

_In the distance, a building fell over throwing debris into the air and sending a wave of smoke over a small part of the city. It wasn't a big building so the smoke didn't get far or became thick. But it still obscured their vision making them stop firing their weapons but this turned into a big mistake as more and more ants charged. _

"_We're going to get overwhelmed!" the commander yelled. "Don't stop firing!" he yelled. _

_Tracer rounds flew though the air followed by tank rounds. Ant bits and guts flew into the air as the rounds detonated against the aggressors and surrounding building. But it wasn't enough as more kept on coming. There was no end to them, but the EDF had to hold out for as long as possible. But the ants began to advance too quickly making the commander order for his group to get on the tanks and fall back to the next barricade. This only worked for so long before they had to fall back to another barricade, and the next. _

_The national guard officer then ran up to the EDF commander. "Just go word, the evacuation is complete, all forc…" he couldn't finish as a loud snap sounded making people look up. _

_A Hive-ship, the aggressors main command and control base hovered over the city. Gritting his teeth, the EDF commander pressed his comm. _

"_EDF command, we have a Hive-ship over New York, I repeat, Hive-ship over New York," he said over his radio, but he then looked over to his men with a concerned look. "Give me a moment," he said before turning his radio off and removing his helmet. "Everyone! EDF command, has ordered a kinetic strike on New York. They want to know if we can make it out," _

_Both EDF and National Guard looked to each other for a moment before they stood, saluted and took their positions. No words, just actions making the commander nod and look toward the National Guard Officer who removed his own helmet and nod. The commander also nodded before pressing his radio on and bringing it to his mouth. _

"_Fire at will," he said before dropping it and fired at the aggressors with the rest of his men and National guard. _

_Far above the city a satellite readied itself before getting a long hollow spear down. Gravity did the rest and brought it down giving it the same impact as a nuke. But the act was in vain as the hive ship vanished before the spear could destroy it. The once great city of New York was destroyed with one shot along with four companies of EDF soldiers. While they managed to save everyone in the city, they failed to stop the invasion of North America and one of the Hive-ships. _

_3 years later. _

_A helicopter flew close to New York and looked over what had become of it. By using the concrete, steel and more the once proud city had become an insect hive. The largest ever recorded. Another rod fell down and destroyed the hive, ending any chance of New York returning to normal. _

Pina, Rory and their respective friends watched the video as it played. It was called 'Fall of New York', and they could see why. Even without knowing what the city was about they could see it was largely wealthy and respected. A great city like just destroyed to try and prevent a full-scale invasion, but failed in any meaningful capacity. Rory was quiet tough out the video, silent. But the others were speechless to say the least. They had never seen this kind of devastation before, but it did give off an impression on Pina.

"How…" she muttered trying to find the right words, but they were lost on her.

They were not lost on Rory who moved over to another video and watched. The others couldn't bring themselves to watch another, but Rory could. She had devastation, war and death before but not like this. This scale, this war, these wars, the people, the soldiers, and more all spoke to her. This wasn't a war; it was a battle for survival. The EDF, the people in this world fought for their right to survive, their will to live was greater than the enemy they faced.

As the video finished, she looked down the museum. There were more videos about the battles that they both won and lost. And this was just the ground level, there where three more levels.

"I think we can skip out on the rest of these videos," Rory suggested as she looked up. "I need to learn more,"

The others just nodded in agreement and they walked up a flight of stairs to the next level. But as they did Rory stopped Pina who turned to the Oracle.

"When we get back to our world, we need to show them the power of the EDF. It's pointless to fight them," she said in a low voice so that the others wouldn't hear.

Pina just nodded in response. "I was thinking that too. A weapon demonstration to the senate would be the best bet to convince them to stop this war,"

"I'll come with you," Rory said shocking the princess. "My presence and word will carry more weight then anyone else. It may also wake up a few of the senate members,"

Pina just nodded at that as they walked up to the next level. Unlike the pervious floor this one was filled with models. Leiei has already looking at one reading the text. Pina joined her looking at a model of a rounded headless white ogre.

"This is a scourger," the witch said. "According to this, it's a robot that was used as a tank by the aggressors,"

"Robot?" Pina asked unfamiliar with the term.

"A golem," Rory said as she walked up. "A puppet that can move but has no will of its own,"

That thought scared Pina as she looked at the model. Her mind then turned back to the videos. Something clicked, she didn't know what the things in the video she saw, now she did and while reading the description the point became even more clearly. Jus like with the entrance they wanted to show you the horror of the war before you met the participants of the war. A faceless enemy was scarier than one with a face.

She looked around and realised what this place was. This wasn't just a reminder; this was a warning. They will be back one of these days, and the EDF would be there to stop them. another thought then crossed her mind, what if these Aggressors were in her world too?


	9. Chapter 9

As the group exited the main section of the museum, they found themselves outside looking at a large field. It was expansive stretching for what seemed like miles. A large stone block was set in front of the field with braziers alight under the flapping of a blue EDF flag and flowers at the bottom. Pina was the first to walk up and read.

"Here lay the unnumbered dead, gone but not forgotten. May they never grow old and rest with the peace that they deserve. Donec iterum convenient (till we meet again)," a tear fell from her eye before the sound of music met her ears. "We shall never forget,"

The group moved up see the mass of graves. Even without knowing the religions of this world they could tell that the crosses that marked some of the graves had a religious meaning. But not all were crosses, some were simple headstones and others had more or less decoration. However, all of them had a rifle shoved into the ground, barrel first with a helmet sitting on the butt of the rifle and a blank dog tag hanging from the handle. Even the graves were blank for the most part.

Rory walked up to one of the graves and squatted down looking at it. Reaching out, she stroked the grave which gave her a flood of emotions but not as bad as before. Unlike with the walls of names which had more emotion and memories behind them, blank icons didn't have them because they were blank. No names to connect them, no memories to hold even if they still held a meaning. She stood and walked back to the others.

"It seems that the EDF have made their point," she said not stopping as she headed for the exit.

The others took a quick glance at each other before joining the oracle. Walking though the exit door they then saw Kyon, Itami, Davies and Bond waited for them.

"Ahh," Bond said as he saw them walkout. "Had fun?" he asked but got a slap on the head for that.

"I wouldn't use fun," Leiei countered. "But it was intresting,"

"D…" Chuka then tried to say but couldn't get the words out for a good moment. "Did all four of you fight monsters?"

Bond opened up his jacket and pulled up his shirt to show a bite mark on the side of his torso. Davies pulled back his sleeves and showed all of his wounds. Kyon turned around and pulled up the back of her uniform to show several slash and bite marks on her back. Itami also opened up his uniform to show the right side of his body that turned out to be burns.

"Laser it from a nearly dead Aggressor tank," he said before buttoning up his uniform. "Good think that lasers cauterise the wounds that they make,"

"For me, I got into a bad fight with some giant wasps," Kyon said as she let her uniform fall back into place. "PA Gear is good, but cannot 100% protect you,"

"I just got into a fistfight with an ant," Davies said as he let his sleeves fall back into place.

"Same," Bond said as he let his shirt fall and fastened his jacked up.

"Wow, you have been though so much," Pina muttered.

"Well we don't like to talk about it," Itami smiled. "So, who's hungry?"

A that moment the group's stomachs began to growl making Bond smile. "Well I guess, that answers that, I know a great British restaurant near here,"

"What are you trying to do to them?" Kyon asked. "British food is bad as it is, Korean would be better,"

"We don't need them burning their mouths out," Davies countered calmly. "What they need is a good cheeseburger,"

"Come on, your American food is only going to add a found pounds on them," Bond nearly yelled as the group began to argue making the visitors just look at them with a deadpan look.

Itami sighed. "Stop it guys, we're in Japan so we'll get Japanese ok," he essentially ordered.

"Fine," Kyon said with a sigh. "I guess that makes sense and is a good compromise," the other two just nodded as well.

OOOOO

Ever since the war parts of Tokyo had been left to decay. This was unintentional as the government was trying to focus on the main residential and commercial areas as well as landmarks. But these left sections of the city untouched by redevelopment, for now. This allowed for criminal groups to hide out in these areas undetected by anyone.

A group of three people walked down the street with weapons concealed in their clothing. Cops didn't patrol this area often, but even then, it did them well to be cautious. They turned off into a back alley and moved to a broke down vending machine and knocked on a hollow wall. It opened up and the three walked inside and down a set of satires to a basement level filled with computers and more.

A man sat in front of one of the computers not turning around to face his guests. "I know why you are here," he said in a bland tone before turning to face them. "Do you have the money?"

"Do you have drrrive?" one of the men asked in a thick Russian accent.

The man held up a small portable disk drive in his hand. The Russian nodded as he pulled out a large leather pouch and opened it. Inside wasn't money, or gemstones but something else. Inside the leather pouch was a blank, almost crystal-clear stone. The computer man smiled. This particular stone was rarer than diamonds. Known as a blank en-gem, the Aggressors used these in very limited quantities and very small and for good reason.

The power output on these things would be able to power the entire EDF military for 10 years even with growth. But they were a major hazard due to instability. Anything larger than a baseball, and the blank en-gems would explode. So, the smaller the better. The EDF had placed an outright ban on the sale and distribution of these for obvious reasons. But local Warlords had little interest in doing what the EDF said. If they want it, they got it regardless.

The man stood and handed them the drive while he got the gem. "Pleasure," he said before turning around and sitting back down.

The three men then exited, one of them was on the phone. As soon as they got outside, he turned to look at the other two and nodded. One of them pulled out a glowing blue grenade before throwing it down the stairs. It detonated with the man screaming in pain. The three then re-entered to see the computer man on the floor convulsing. All the computers were now off due to the grenade thrown.

One of the men then fired a few rounds into the computer man killing him outright while the other recovered the blank gem and left after setting a timed charge.

OOOOO

After a short while, the group found a good place to eat and they made their orders. Rory, Leiei and Chuka knew what to expect with Japanese food but Pina and her retinue didn't know what to expect. They looked around at the strange food house. It was well lit with images of food on the walls. Their Japanese wasn't good, so they had to ware beads in their ears so that the language could be translated for them. But they didn't need to wait long as their food arrived.

Bozes watched as the three EDF soldiers cracked open their eggs and poured them over their food. "What is this?" she asked. "Do we eat it raw?"

The others shared similar looks but did what the EDF did and cracked their eggs over their food. They took a gulp before they began to eat. After the first bite, they looked up at each other with surprise at how good it was. As they ate Bond's phone then rang making him answer it.

"Bond here," he said before his voice went dark. "That joke has been used once too often, keep using it and I will make your life a living hell," he warned. "Ahhh, ok… what… damn it I'll be there soon," he then hung up. "Chef can I get a doggy bag?" he asked.

The Chef nodded but Itami just looked to the intelligence officer. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, Intel just picked up on something that requires my attention," Bons said as she chef brought up a bag with his food in. "I'll see you some other time," he said before leaving.

"I wonder what that's about," Kyon said but just shrugged and continued to eat.

OOOOO

"Open the gates!" someone yelled and the gates of Alnus base opened up.

Several raven transports rolled into the base and began to unload their cargo of slaves. As the EDF soldiers began to help them out General Hazama walked up to the Captain in charge while not taking his eyes off as medics and others began to bring medical equipment and food.

"What happened?" the General asked.

"We ambushed a slaver caravan and camp," the Captain said in a thick Norwegian accent (A/N couldn't find a generator for the accent, sorry). "These are the ones who we found. They said that their towns and villages have been destroyed due to bandits. It seems that the bandits sold them off,"

Hazama nodded and rubbed the back of his head. "Well this is probably a good thing. High Command have authorised the use of the Wasteland Protocol,"

The Captain looked to him in surprise. "Really?" he asked. "It my not be my place to ask but why?"

"High command had a long debate about this, but they did agree on one thing. The bandits that are roaming the place, well we caused them due to the attacks on the gate. They have no local leaders left to guide them in a time of crisis. So, we'll take them in and give them citizenship," the general said in a serious tone but the latter of what he said raised come questions with the Captain.

The Captain gave a slight frown. "Why do I think that high command just wants to populate the world with catgirls?"

The general just sighed as he shared the same thoughts. "That had crossed my mind a number of times, but given that we still don't know anything about the aggressors…" he trailed off his mind filled with images of the war.

"They want more of a population base to recruit soldiers for the EDF," the Captain finished. "And the fact that they are demi-humans adds to the decision to add them into our ranks due to their natural skills," he nodded understanding the logic. "Makes sense, but still,"

"I share the same feelings you do, but there's little to what we can do about it," the general sighed.

OOOOO

Night was approaching as the group checked into a hotel. While Rory, Leiei and Chuka relaxed almost instantly, Pina and her group looked around.

"This is some fine decor," Bozes said as she sat down. "You must be quite wealthy to rent a place like this,"

"I don't think so," Hamilton countered. "If what we have seen is any indication, tis is standard," that made the group shiver.

"What's this?" Panache asked as she picked up a long silver piece and pressed something on it.

A screen set in the middle of the wall opposite her came to live scaring her and making her drop it. Pina turned to look at it.

"Oh, it's one of those videos," she said as she made the connection.

"Must be more common than we thought," Bozes said as she watched and realised that there were some similarities between what was on now, and what she saw. "Is this part of the museum?" she asked.

"No," Hamilton said as she got a closer look. "They don't have those PA gears and those aren't ants,"

Just then Kyon walked in. "Hey girls," she said with a smile before following their gaze. "Oh, Starship troopers, I love this movie," that made them turn to her.

"You know what this is?" Pina asked.

"Yeah, let me just get it to the beginning and get some popcorn,"

Codex:

Wasteland Protocol:

When refuges have been found, but no one takes responsibility it is the duty of the EDF to take them in as citizens of the nation they found them in.

En-gem:

A shortened version of 'energy gem'.


	10. Chapter 10

"Yawn, what's taking them so long?" Davies asked as he sat next to Itami, who was currently engaged with a new manga.

"They probably stayed up watching tv," he replied.

That made the American groan in annoyance. But that didn't last long as the lift pinged and the girls exited.

"It was soo cool!" Chuka said her eyes glowing. "The enemies and how the humans beat them!"

"I admit, it was quite entertaining," Leiei agreed.

"What are you two talking about?" Bozes asked glowing red. "That bed scene was inappropriate!"

Kyon smiled. "Well, that's kind of the standard for older films," that made Bozes go even redder.

"What is wrong with you people?" she yelled earning a few eyes in her direction.

"What's going on?" Davies asked as he stood.

"We watched Starship Troopers last night," Kyon replied. "Stayed up late to watch it,"

"Ahh," Davies nodded. "Good film,"

Bozes was going to say something but Pina held her back. "Kyon said that the EDF took inspiration from the film," she said. "What in particular would that be?"

"Uniforms, weapons and militarised style," Itami said as he put his manga away. "When the EDF first formed, there was a requirement for being unique so new members asked what style they would like for the organisation. Starship Troopers was the one people pointed to, despite the Fascist style of the uniforms. But when more nations joined up, the uniform had minor changes to allow for different nations to be represented," he shrugged. "You'll see soon enough, come we need get moving,"

He led them onto a landing platform where a transport aircraft was waiting for them. Pina, and the others were still a little nervous as they boarded. Once they were strapped in securely, the aircraft took off and climbed higher and higher into the sky. As it did, the newcomers looked outside in amazement. Despite the ruins, they could clearly see how big the city used to be. But soon the sight of the Fujin filled their view.

The underside was rounded but the top of it was flat like the airfield at Alnus hill. Deck guns were placed on the from corners in front of the runway and a tower at both sides. On the right side, next to the tower where four square shapes with a H in the middle of them. The transport aircraft flew in and landed on one of them. After a moment the square descended into the hanger.

"What's happening?" Leiei asked.

"As you ascend higher, the air becomes so thin you cannot breathe. And the due to the cold temperatures, you'd freeze to death," the co-pilot said as he emerged from the cockpit.

"Understandable," Pina said making eyes look to her with surprise. "The Imperial Wyvern Knights need to ware extra padding due to the colder air that you get as you get higher. Heat may rise, but it disperses the higher you get,"

"Well given those knights," Itami muttered. "It makes sense that you would be aware of that,"

That made Pina smile, for once she got one up on the EDF. Suddenly there was a jerk as the transport stopped. The co-pilot then began to help people out of their harnesses as the ramp lowered. Once out of their harnesses, the group walked out of the transport and followed Itami to the main hall. They walked down a corridor that had a line of people on both sides dressed in EDF blues. But these people didn't wear the standard uniform, and even then, the uniform that they wore was different between them.

The soldiers stood at attention with an assault rifle in hand and didn't make a move as the group walked past. "Who are these people?" Hamilton asked.

"The EDF Honour Guard," Davies answered. "One of the Elite of all EDF personnel,"

"If they are EDF," Leiei began, "Why don't they wear your uniform?"

"Because they represent the different nations that they come from," Kyon indicated to a man who wore a bit fur hat and a blue buttoned up coat. "This gentleman," she gave him a nod and the man just blinked. "Is from the United Kingdom, he's part of the Grenadier guards. The soldiers who protect their Royal family," she then indicated to the man next to the Guardsman who wore a similar uniform but without the big hat. "As for this gentleman, he's from the Kremlin Regiment from Russia,"

"So, all of these people are the Honour Guard from their respective countries but their ware their own uniforms?" Hamilton asked.

"Yeah," Davies answer with a small smile. "It's meant to keep their national identities, but show that we are united,"

As they talked Rory looked to one of the Grenadier Guards with interest. She wated to touch the uniform, but if these guards were anything like the Honour Guard where she came from, touching would be a big no regardless of the reasons. It took all of her will power to turn away and follow the others as they moved on into the main hall. As they entered Pina looked around at the large circular room with a sense of familiarity and awe. It reminded her of the senate in a way, but it was clearly different.

The room was set up in a half-circle set at different levels. Facing the levels was a long table with several chairs along it and microphones on top. As the group walked to the large table, the others looked at the stands and could see the names of the different nations being displayed. Flags hung behind the chairs to also represent the nation in question. Others soon began to walk in and take their seats at their respective nation's places.

Rory watched as the representatives began to take places in front of the flags. But she noticed the different outfits that they wore. Some wore a suit, not quite like what the EDF wore but similar in style. Others wore something more exotic. There were also people who wore long brown robes as if they were monks. The monk looking people and the ones in suits had an even balance of people.

"What's with the robes?" she asked Itami.

"They are Jedi," he said. "It's one of the major religions,"

The Oracle nodded and made a mental note to look up at the religions. As they reached the table, they took their seats where they saw their names, but Itami hesitated for a moment as he looked at the name next to his.

"What's wrong?" Pina asked.

He gulped. "General Yagami is going to sit next to me," he muttered making Kyon and Davies' eyes widen. "He's known as the Hero of the EDF,"

That didn't mean much to Pina and her retinue, but it was clear he was a man who commanded great respect with the EDF officers. Itami sat and they waited for the rest of the other seat to be taken. A buzzing sounded and Hamilton yelped making people look to her. She sat at the end of the table facing something that hovered in front of her.

"What is that?" Bozes asked standing.

"That's just a drone cam," Kyon said. "It records both sound and images and send it to millions,"

"So that's how you get moving images?" Leiei asked and Kyon nodded.

That eased them slightly, even if they didn't understand it. Bozes sat down and waited. The hall was almost full now with over 100 people already sitting at their respective places. More drone cams flew around the hall, most of them trying to get a good shot at Chuka due to her being an elf. Soon all the seats where filled, excluding the one reserved for General Yagami which only made the EDF members on the table even more nervous.

As for the new commers, they were nervous as they didn't know what to expect. They had been told that this was more of a question session about the dragon attacks, but also what happened at Italica. They knew that they were going to get bombarded with questions, but that didn't make it any better. A group of people then entered from one of the doors, the lead man being in EDF blues. Everyone stood and as he passed them, he got a nod before they sat down.

Rory said nothing, but she could see that this man had seen more combat than any one had the right to. He wasn't old, but wasn't young either and carried himself with what seemed like the weight of the world. Her eyes then fell on his name tag, General Takuma Yagmi.

"So that's what a hero of the EDF looks like," she muttered earing herself a look from the others.

Yagmi took his seat and the conference began.

OOOOO

Bond sighed as he entered the highest point of the Tokyo HQ. As a backup, all nations had an EDF HQ that allowed for command and control if one of the Sky Fortress' fell. But there were always a few sections of the base decided to EDF intel. After the first Aggressor war, all intelligence agencies also faced the merge. But this one was less drastic then the others as they had to hand over a quarter of their agencies to the EDF.

However, the problem of integration still remained. The EDF had the same problems with the Intel groups as they did with the military. Office politics turned out to be a major factor with people from the different agencies trying to one up each other. Only when the second Aggressor war began did the integration fully take off. With an enemy to focus on they put their differences were put aside and they focused on countering the Aggressors.

After that EDF Intel was born. While there was still office politics, it was more about how to do things than loyalty. Bond walked down one of the aisles ignoring the most of the officers who were working on their own little project. Soon he stopped and found the cubicle he was looking for.

The occupant inside had her head laying on her desk while muttering something about deadlines. With intelligence officers, they were not required to wear a uniform, it was recommended to wear a suit to have a sense of professionalism. But this girl was just in her casuals. She had brown hair, glasses and a red jacket. Her computer betrayed her side job as Bond spied a work-in-progress art on it.

"Agent Aoi," he said as he gently shook her.

"Huh wha…" she said as she woke suddenly before noticing her boss. "Huh… Mr Bond?"

He smiled. "Your side job catching up to you again?" he asked.

"Ahhhh!" she screamed as she looked at her monitor and turned it off before looking to her boss with a coy smile. "Please tell me you didn't see that,"

"Depends if your interested in a little side project," he smiled. "Agree, and I'll forget it,"

"I hate you," she said as she turned her monitor back on and turned the image off. "So, what are we looking for?"

"Any radio traffic from China," he replied.

Aoi nodded and began to work her magic on the keyboard. Bond watched over her as she brough up recent radio chatter from China and Japan. The screen moved fast so he couldn't get enough information from them. But this is why Intel recruited her, she could read things and process them at a rate faster than others. A major skill for any intel officer to get as much intel as they need. It took a while but she soon had something.

"All of the radio chatter to and from Japan and China is standard, but there are a few that have their signals bounced," she said. "It's going to take time to see where they came from so, some information would be nice,"

"One of our ships detected an aircraft heading towards Japan. Focus on that," Bond said.

"Would you like that shaken not stirred?" Aoi smiled earning herself a disapproving look from her boss.


	11. Chapter 11

**Just a side note, but because that there's not much lore from the anime, I'll be making some stuff up. Not a lot, but enough to flesh it out and allow it to make sense. **

This 'investigation', as the UN members called it, was getting on Pina's and Rory's nerves as the main spoke's woman kept focusing on aspect. 150 civilians dead due to the flame dragon attack and questioning why the EDF didn't react soon enough. They did expect that these people didn't know what a Flame Dragon could do, but to expect everyone getting out alive was just unrealistic. Pina looked to the EDF soldiers next to her and could see that they also had similar thoughts.

"150 people died due to the incompetence of the EDF!" the woman said before someone stood.

"Objection!" he yelled. "The EDF had no idea what they were facing up against. This isn't down to incompetence, but lack of useful intelligence to act on for an effective defence,"

"That just shows their incompetence!" the spokeswoman countered. "They should have been trying to look for threats and how to deal with them so that this couldn't happen,"

"If I may say something," a man in a white coat spoke as he stood.

A he did Kyon leaned in to Rory's ear. "He's one of the EDF scientists," she whispered. "Kinda like a mage who knows and experiments a lot,"

Rory nodded and passed the word down to the others as the man picked up a tablet. "The Flame dragon's scales are extremely hard so that standard anti B-class rounds aren't able to penetrate it. The same goes for higher calibre weapons. Velocity seems to be key with penetrating it's hide, this is why the railgun was able to take the creature down," he placed the tablet down onto the table. "In short, the EDF wouldn't have known which weapons would have useful until they faced the beast in action. Even if they had information,"

He than sat down leaving the room in silence for a few moments. "What kind of excuse is that?" the spokeswoman spat. "If that's the case, then they should have used the railgun outright,"

This time Takuma stood and all eyes focused on him as if he could just draw their attention like a black hole. "With respect Miss Amari, you have never been in combat so you don't understand what difficulties the EDF has using handheld railguns. They are heavy, even for PA Gear, and require a 30 second charge. Now, 30 seconds may not seem like a long time for normal situations. But in a combat field that 30 seconds can mean the choice between life and death. Using one isn't a choice to be taken lightly as that charge time leaves the soldier out in the open for too long as well as making them a very easy target. This is why we use them on specialised tanks. Due to the increase of power, they can fire more shots in a shorter time. One shot for a handheld railgun means that 15 shots can come from a tank,"

"Then why didn't they take tanks?" the woman demanded.

"Because they are expensive and it was decided that there was no need for them on a recon mission," with that he said down leaving the air of authority he had when he stood.

But once he sat, Rory stood. "While I don't fully understand about your weapons," she confessed. "I feel like I need to speak up on behalf of the soldiers. Little girl, you seem to enjoy presenting numbers in a certain way. But what you don't seem to understand id that despite not facing a dragon before, they didn't hesitate to attack," she looked to Pina. "Princess would you care to explain how your people deal with dragons,"

"Y… yes," Pina said as she stood. "Normally, Dragons appear every 100 years. This makes it easy to prepare for them. But…" she trailed away in thought. "…that preparation normally lead to widespread evacuations of people and farmland. Sometimes, entire villages of evacuees and the soldiers sent to protect them are never heard from again. We found ashes at what remined. Very few knights are brave enough to take on dragons, and even fewer come back with something to prove that they killed a dragon. We don't take on dragons, we avoid them. For us, to have one quarter of people die from a dragon attack is a miracle," she sat down and before anyone else could speak Rory continuing.

"You see little girl; you're not focusing on the real matter. Despite this great achievement they did you are too blind and instead focus on the negative. To you it's not that three quarters survive but that one third died because you don't care. All you care is about your career and will throw anyone under your feet to get there, little girl," she then spread her arm out to indicate the EDF next to her. "These people saved the lives of the people they were protecting, feeding them and giving them shelter when the empire did nothing. They deserve praise not ridicule form a coward who refused to pick up a sword,"

The twitch on Amari's stopped as she was about to unleash her anger. "How dare you, you little…." but before she could continue Itami stood.

"Before councillor Amari embarrass' herself," that earned him a death glare from the woman. "I should point out that Rory Mercury is the oldest person here despite her look,"

Some of the colour drained from Amari's face and other councillors looked on surprised. "How old are you?" Takuma asked.

"961," she declared making everyone fall silent in horror.

"WHATTTT!" most if not all exclaimed.

Amari's eyes then turned to the elf. "A….and you miss Chuka?"

"165," the elf answered which still shocked the room, but from Leiei onwards weren't a surprise.

"Well," a man said standing. "It's clear that the situation is not simple as you make it out to be, Miss Amari. I understand that Arabia doesn't like the EDF, but trying to throw them under the bus with a situation that is so clear cut just shows your bias toward them. While I have my own personal reservations about the EDF, it's clear that you want to disband them. I think we all know what happened the last time nations tried that. I move that the EDF will not be held responsible for a situation that they had no control over,"

A second speaker stood. "Will all members please cast their votes,"

There was a silence before a holographic screen appeared before the guests and councillors. The green bar was bigger than a red bar making the EDF soldiers sigh in relief. Pina and the others looked on unsure what to make of it. While they didn't fully understand what happened, it was clear what happened. The woman in front of them lost her argument and failed to make a case to show that the EDF failed in their duties to protect people.

"We are in agreement," the speaker said. "Does Miss Amari concede the argument?"

Hanna Amari sighed as she sat down in her chair. "I concede that the EDF did everything in their power to protect the people under their charge," she grumbled.

"Very good, now the final subject of this questioning will be directed at General Takuma," the speaker said making the EDF soldiers next to him stiffen.

"So that's why you're here sir?" Itami whispered and got a nod in return.

"Not sure if you heard, but the other generals and I have agreed to activate the Wasteland Protocol," the general whispered back.

The lieutenant nodded as the speaker spoke. "We would like an explanation for why the Wasteland Protocol was activated,"

"What's that?" Rory whispered to Kyon.

"It's a procedure to secure any and fall civilians who have been abandoned by their government or leaders to die," she answered. "Here slavery has been abolished for years, so if we see slaves, we'll be bringing them back or villages who have been turned away from the cities,"

Rory nodded and passed the message down which earned shocked looks from Pina and her group.

Takuma stood. "This decision was an easy one to make for several reasons. The first one is our hand in the matter of the bandit's rampage. Due to us killing a majority of the Empires local leaders during the Ginza incident and the battles at the Gate. The remaining soldiers have no leaders, no structure and raid what they can. The second is the slave trade within the empire. As you know, the EDF has a policy of freeing all slaves and give them housing. The third is simply due to population. We no longer have billions of people across the world, but while that means that the planet can heal from our arrogance, it also means that we don't have enough people to help defend the planet if the aggressors attack again. Yes, it is a way to get new soldiers, I will admit that, but it also means that populations can be boosted in other industries," Pina and her retinue just stared at him in a combination of confusion and shock.

"I don't think that this issue would require a vote," a woman said. "Again, this is a clear-cut case, but I would like to ask how the EDF plans to divide the refugee population between the different nations and industries,"

"We will be giving them basic academic tests to see where their skills lay. If they have military applications, we will be testing them out for EDF forces. If they fail or don't have a skill that can be used by the EDF. As for those who don't make the cut, each nation will be given a list of who is available and what field. It will be down to the persons choice after that," the General explained while several councillors nodded.

"Is that standard for them?" Hamilton asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm not sure, we'll ask later," Pina said.

"While a vote may not be necessary," the speaker said. "It is required, will all councillors please vote for the continuation of the protocol,"

A moment later another holo screen appeared with the green bar almost being full as a few people had voted against it. But red marks weren't even acknowledged by most of the councillors. Even Pina knew that even with the most rational sounding legislation or plans would have its detractors.

"The Wasteland Protocol will remain in effect until the EDF deem otherwise," the speaker said. "Now for the last topic on the agenda, the situation in Italica,"

OOOOO while the investigation was going on.

With most of the EDF technology being reversed engineered from alien tech, specialised engineers were needed to keep some of the more advanced technology going. This was true for the Avenger Sky Fortress due to the power and engines that keep it airborne. A small army was needed to keep the engines active.

The engine room of the Avenger was busting with engineers as they kept an eye on the systems of the sky fortress that kept it up in the sky. The EDF had a uniform colour code that allowed people to tell the difference between the jobs that the members performed. Blue was the standard uniform colour for all, green for the military, black for intel, orange for support and yellow for the engineers. This made it easy for personnel to pick out who was part of their group if needed.

As people moved around the main engine bay, a large open area with generators on the top and bottom that nearly filled the entire room, one of the engineers moved to one of the turbines. The sky fortress had four main turbines that kept it in the air. If one should fail then the fortress would descend into the sea. He smiled as he approached on of the primary terminals for the turbines. The area's around them were lightly staffed due to the fact that the turbines weren't much of a concern.

While these were alien technology, they weren't like the generators which needed constant observation. So, they were lightly staffed allowing the lone engineer to access the terminal turning the turbine off. As it began to slow down, he then got down an assessed the cabling inside the terminal and rewired a few things to make it seem like a rookie was making a few repairs. With a smile he then closed it and walked off.

Up on the bridge one of the pilots looked toward the turbine controls with a frown.

"Sir, one of the turbines is slowing down," he said making the Capitan walk over to him.

"Glitch?" he asked but the pilot shook his head. "Doesn't look like it. Probably a fault with the system. I need to set her down in the ocean either way,"

"Do so," the Capitan said before walking over to his chair and picking up the mic.

OOOOO

"Attention all hands," the Capitan said over the comm. "It seems that one of our turbines is slowing down. Please stand by for decent and splashdown,"

"What he mean by that?" Rory asked.

"One of the wings that is keeping us had got something wrong with it," Kyon replied. "So, we're going to land in the sea to get it repaired,"

Rory passed the word down to the others but it seemed that the investigation had stopped as people strapped themselves into their chairs. Pina felt her ears pop as she turned to look though the window behind her. The others follow suit watching as the Fujin descended into the sea. They couldn't help but be in awe as they could not only see the city but the as as it came closer and closer.

"Strap in," Kyon said as she brought a belt over her lap and locked it on.

The others follow suit but still managed to turn to see as the sky fortress splashed into the sea. They were then transfixed by the sight of the underwater world as lights came on.

"Wow," was all Hamilton was able to say as the UN council allowed them to take it all in.

Once the shock wore off the Speaker then asked if they were ready to continue.

"Yes," Pina said quickly turning to face them. "I apologise," she bowed.

"It's no worry," one of the councillors said. "It's understandable that you need to take a few moments to take all of this in,"

"Thank you," Pina said. "As for the matter of Itcalica, I agree to the terms of it being neutral between the EDF and the Empire. However, as to having an EDF garrison there. I do not think that my father, the Emperor, will accept that. As such I wish to ask for the EDF to have a weapon demonstration at Italica to show what my father and the senate is facing,"

There was a moment silence but there were a few hushed tones before one spoke up. "Would this be a demonstration of power? If so, we have reservations about that,"

Pina was about to talk but Rory stood placing her hand on the princess' shoulder silencing her. "If I may, yesterday me and Pina had the same talk about a show of power to the Emperor. We agree that to stop this war, a show of force would make them think about what they are going to do. You see the Empire has been looking to expand for years, currently they have the continent under their grasp. With my position I can essentially force them to the table. If they see how powerful your weapons are, there will be a very strong push for peace,"

"But what if it has the opposite effect?" another asked. "If they see this as a show of power, what's to stop them from being emboldened and ramping up their attacks?"

"Internal struggle," Pina said. "While most senators are with the Emperor, they are like that out of fear and not any kind of respect or loyalty. If we can show them that the EDF is a bigger threat to their power then they'll capitulate,"

There was another moment of silence as people started talking to each other before a series of nods echoed in the room.

"We agree on one condition," another member said. "All traders who operate under the EDF banner are tax exempt,"

"That we can manage," Pina agreed.

And with that it the investigation was over and after a few signings of papers people began to leave the Fujin.

OOOOO EDF Alnus base.

Quite a few of the slaves who had been brought in were taken for medical treatment. One man however was brought from a nearby village. He had long dark hair and a well-built body. But he was missing his left arm and leg. It appeared that the local villages couldn't help him any longer so brought him to the base in order to help him out. Apparently, he refused at first before agreeing. But that meant little to EDF doctors as they helped anyone regardless.

Dr Stephen Strange walked up to the man and sat next to him. "So how are we doing today?" he asked.

"I'm fine," the old man smiled. "I've never seen such a place like this before, and you help all you can. You must be very skilled,"

"We like to think so," Strange said as he pulled back the man's sheet and looked at the nubs where the man's limbs used to be. "Look like they are healing nicely, we can get you fitted with prosthetics if you like?"

"What are those?" the man asked.

In order to answer his question Strange pulled up his trouser leg showing a metal leg where his real one used to be. "This is a prosthetic. It can help you walk and give you back both your arms,"

"Such amazing magic," the old man said. "Can they help me fight again?"

"You're a soldier?" the man nodded. "Well yes and no. Normally the military prosthetics are only available to EDF personnel. But I can put in an order for an athlete one,"

"That will be fine with me," the man said.

Arabian Republic.

After the Second Aggressor war, many nations were reformed with some being larger than others. Mostly due to the outright destruction of cultures and ethnic groups. As such some nations no longer existed and what was left of them were absorbed into a bigger nation. This is true for the nations that once existed in the middle east. While many cultures and ethnic groups from the region did still exist, it was agreed that being part of a bigger nation was better for all then separating into smaller ones.

The Arabian Republic is one of these nations, but despite being helped out by the EDF they have a strong dislike for the multinational organisation. This is mostly due to the view that they had even before the war.

When the EDF was founded many nations distrusted the organisation seeing it as just an arm of the USA. This is in despite of the fact that even nations that distrusted the US signed the Defence agreement. This included China who added legitimacy to the agreement, but didn't prevent conspiracy theorists from making claims.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry about the short chapter, but my creative streak is drying up a bit. I don't feel like I need to explain why. Either way enjoy. **

The group walked down the ramp onto the docks with Kyon cracking her neck and limbs. "Thank hell that's over," she said. "I hate politics,"

"You think you're the only one?" Davies asked as he cracked his own neck.

"That was so tedious," Pina muttered. "But I'm impressed with the lack of squabbling,"

"Yeah that's due to the aggressor war," Itami said. "Most if not all of the politicians you met are former EDF soldiers. Granted, most of them are higher ranked, but there's a strong sense of duty with them. They got tired of having politicians argue about policy and more, so when they got into politics there was an unspoken deal made. All will listen, questions and arguments come later. In their mind the greater good of humanity trumps all other concerns," he looked to the Fujin. "It's also the reason why military service is now more of a requirement to join up,"

Pina nodded in understanding. The empire was similar, but it was clear to her that the EDF and UN were taking this role more seriously due to the Aggressors. While she couldn't imagine what the war was like, she could see how it affected them all. That affect translated into a mentality to put the greater whole first, not themselves. It wasn't for all, the Arabian Republic woman proved that, but it was clear that they were trying at the least.

Before anyone could say anything two people in blue vests ran up, panting as they did so. "Kyon, finally," one said.

The Sargent looked to them with wide eyes. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Look at the time," the other man said and Kyon did.

Her faced turn to confusion before she screamed in realisation. "AHHHH THAT'S THE TIME?" she asked. "I need to go bye!" she said before running with the two men in toe.

The guests just watched with a shocked look while the two EDF soldiers just shrugged. "So, she's late to prepare, not much of a surprise," Itami muttered.

"Well, it did go on longer than expected," Davies added. "Anyway, we need to get these guys to Shibuya,"

"Good point," the lieutenant said as she turned to the girls. "Ok, who's up for a bit of shopping?" he asked.

The seven looked to him with an interested eye. "Shopping?" Hamilton asked.

OOOOO

The group stood in awe as they looked up at the towering buildings with the neon lights and people bustling around. They drank it up and moved around the different shops seeing what they had to offer. There was a library with these shops which Pina and Rory were interested in. The receptionist pointed them to history and religion while Itami stood by to make sure nothing happened to them. The two read to their hearts content as they had time to.

"This is interesting," Rory muttered as she read.

Pina looked up from her own book. "What is it?"

"During the aggressor wars, the worlds religions of the time tried to comfort people, but due to how many were dying many of them lost faith," that made Pina wince. "Many of them turned away from Gods, this was mostly due to the inaction of their Gods,"

"I assume some thought it was an unfair test," Pina added.

"Yes and no, some did but others came to the conclusion that God didn't exist," Rory clarified making the princess' eyes widen. "From that other religions came to be, Jediism seems to be the most common. From what I can tell, it was from a movie series called Star Wars. It was very popular, and during the war the religion became more mainstream. God based religions started to decline while spiritual ones were going up. With one exception, the War Cult,"

"That sounds similar to your religion," the princess said quietly.

"Yes, but not in the way you think. The cult is only seen within the EDF, they don't worship any Gods. Instead they pledge themselves not to yield in battle and gain a place in Valhalla and Elysium. The resting place of warriors and heroes. Listen to this: By the Gods of war, I will not yield, I may fall, but by my honour may my sacrifice in battle not be in vein,"

"The I fail to see how it's a proper religion," Pina said.

"Religion isn't always something that can be seen, sometimes it's more subtle," Rory said. "I have travelled though our world many times, met thousands of religions. Sometimes it's easy to see, other times it could just be simple belief. It's not always structured the same say, and the beliefs can be understood as just simple nature,"

Pina wasn't convinced but got the gist of what the oracle was saying. She didn't respond and instead looked back at the book in front of her. While she wanted to learn more about the aggressors, she figured that learning more about this world's history would provide insight

Nearby the others were investigating what this new world sold. Hamilton and Leiei looked at the electronics section, they were very interested in the laptops that people seemed to use. But given the lack of tech the Empire had; Hamilton doubted that she would be able to buy one. So, she just listened in to the different aspects of this worlds technology not even pretending to understanding.

Boze, Chuka and Panache where checking out the clothing. They rarely saw such finery outside of the nobility. This whole city was just amazing that they couldn't fully fathom the wonders it had.

As the sun started to set the group made their way to a bus that was waiting for them. "Where to next?" Hamilton asked, her eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"To a concert," Itami said.

"Oh good," Bozes said. "Finally, a bit of culture,"

Davies raised his brow. "Do you know what a concert is?"

"Someone singing on stage?" she asked.

Itami shrugged. "Sort of, you see but you are going to need these," he handed them some ear defenders. "They'll help with the sound,"

That made them raise their brows in confusion but slid them into their ears anyway. The buss arrived at a large building and the group were taken to a vip balcony what gave them a good look at the stage. Their eyes widened as they saw hundreds, if not thousands of men and women standing in front of a stage. Each one of them was dressed in very bizarre clothing that shone in the spectrum of multi-coloured lights. Before anyone could ask anything, the lights turned off.

"Tokyo!" someone yelled with the voice of a dragon. "Are you ready to rock?"

The crowd below cheered in response with an almost defining volume, that the group were happy that they had those ear defenders in.

"Then let's welcome the ladies of danger! The beauties of the skies! THE JET ANGELS!"

Seven women then landed on the stage in the super hero pose. They stayed like that for a moment before standing and waved at the crowd. Pina stared at the women in front of her. While they wore the jet armour of the EDF, they also wore some of the flashiest outfits she had ever seen. She could see Kyon with them before remembering that comment she made about being a singer.

Back then she doubted the claim but now, she wondered what kind of music they would play. If the people were any indication, it wasn't 'normal music'. the group was made up of seven women of young to mid-twenties. But they have to be of age to join the EDF, about 18 years of age.

"Who are they?" Leiei asked.

"Well you know Kyon," Davies said as he held up his fingers and countered the other six members. Let's see… there's the main singers Jade and Elisabeth, Natasha and Aurelia on the guitar, Kyon on bass, Yukari on drums and Amber on piano,"

Before anyone else could ask anything, Elisabeth spoke up again. "In honour of Queen, as today marks when their last member died, we're going to start off this concert with a bang! If your up there Freddy, this one's for you!"

One of the guitarists then started to pluck the strings on her instrument and the others soon followed.

"Here we stand, here we fall," Elisabeth started.

"History won't care at all," Jade continued.

The group just watched as the idol band played. The meaning behind this move was a simple one, the EDF weren't just there to fight, they were there to keep humanity going. Despite the politics, despite the problems they faced, they are the face of humanity and they were going to do everything in their power to protect it.

After four hours the concert ended and the group returned to the hotel. But their blood was still pumping from what they witnessed. By the time they got to sleep, it was morning.

OOOOO

During the 2nd aggressor war, western China wasn't much of a target. This led to people evacuate to the western areas to find shelter. Due to the low resources of the area, the EDF largely ignored it but kept up supplying the region. But due to the area being ignored this led to warlords taking over and hording the resources. This wasn't due to negligence on the EDF's part, but to the lack of manpower that they had at their disposal.

The small settlement was set between several hills with only a one way in or out. The rich soil area allowed for crop growing and with an abandoned Chinese bunker nearby allowed this small community to expand. But the area was controlled by a warlord who didn't much care for anything but his own power.

Lebedev Zhen watched as scientists worked on a green en-gem. They wore orange hazard suits as crushing en-gems happened to be highly toxic as they released a gas that turned lungs into little more than swiss cheese. They had to be careful or they'd die. Lebedev watched as a man walked out of the room still dressed in the hazard suit.

"Sir, we have still work to do," he said. "But we can turn it into an aerosolised form. It's just going to take longer,"

"What about the weapon?" the half Russian asked.

"We've ran the tests, it will work. But it's still going to take time," he said.

"I want them ready by the time we have those hostages," Zhen said.

"We will sir, but we are going to need targets, resources and more," the scientist said.

"You'll get them," the Warlord said. "By this time next week Neos China will be born,"


	13. Chapter 13

Darkness descended on Tokyo as the night fell on them. A small group outside the hotel Pina and her group stayed in sat in a nearby restaurant eyeing the place. They didn't make a move, not yet anyway, they needed a place for them to carry out their mission without interference. As they ate, one of them looking at his bowl of ramen with a disgusted look, another man joined them.

"Gentlemen," he said calmly. "I am your driver for today,"

The men nodded before leaving some money on the table and walking out. The waitress just looked on dumbfounded as the five men left. Walking close together, the group walked up to a van and climbing in. Once in, and the door shut, the van took off.

"Ok, so here's the intel I managed to acquire," the newcomer said as he pulled up a laptop and turned it to face his friends. "They are off to Hakone tomorrow, to spend the night at an Onsen. That will be the perfect time to grab them. Security will be lax, and the other world guests will be sleeping here," he pointed out a room to the west of the building. "We gab them and get them to Neos China, then the plan will be set,"

"Good, what about the weapons," one of them asked.

The man set aside the laptop and pulled out a briefcase containing a set old HK MP5 supressed sub machine guns.

"The rounds are taser, so if you need to shoot any of them feel free. They won't die," the man side with an evil smile on his face.

OOOOO

"I'm not looking forward to this," Bond's partner said as she and him waited on the platform of a train station.

"Well, you've been at work for so long," Bond replied. "I think you need a break,"

"It's not that…" she muttered as the sounds of chatter met her ears.

"So, what's this sinkensen?" Pina asked with a yawn.

The previous night had her and her group failed to fall asleep due to the heart pounding excitement of the concert. So, the tiredness they had was understandable, but they were amazed ad the stamina of the EDF soldiers as they didn't even look tired. Those years fighting the aggressors must had imbued them with something.

"The sinkensen is the fastest train on the planet," Kyon explained as she cracked her neck. "You know the railguns we use?" there was a nervous nod from the others. "Well similar concept. We use what's called maglev or magnetic levitation to hold the train up and move it along the rails. It goes around 600 miles per hour,"

The faces of shock that Pina and the others showed was priceless making Kyon laugh. "Oh your faces," she smiled before she ran into Itami's back. "Hey," she said before moving around him. "What's up?"

Itami gulped as his eyes fell on Bond and the woman next to him. The others also followed his eyes.

"What's up?" Davies asked.

"Hi Itami…" the new girl with glasses said shyly.

"Hi Risa…" Itami muttered.

"Ok what's going on here?" Kyon asked.

"This is Risa Aoi," he said after a moment. "My wife…"

Those words echoed in their ears for a moment. "What…..?" everyone yelled looking from him to Risa. "Your wife?"

"Well…ex-wife…" Risa clarified.

"You….your…. your married?" Kyon asked before fainting. "How…why… how is that possible? Does the universe hate me? Why is this no-good otaku married?"

As she spoke the train arrived.

OOOOO

Soon after that little incident, the group arrived at the Onsen. They got divided up into their rooms, men on one side women on the other. The girls also got first call in the hot spring while the two men waited.

"Ahhh this is relaxing…" Pina said as she sank into the hot spring.

"Tell me about it," Risa replied as she sank too.

"Say Risa…" Rory asked. "How did you and Itami meet?"

"Well…" the intel officer said shyly. "We knew each other during school, same interests, and one day I said you better marry me and take care of me. But something happened that made it more than that, it was during the war,"

OOOOO 12 years ago, Beijing, Chinese Wasteland.

People moved out of the way as EDF trucks moved in. Unlike normal four wheeled trucks, the EDF used half-tracks to get past the traitorous terrain of the wasteland. While half-tracks were used during the last world war as a stop-gap between cars and tanks. Mostly because of the lack of people who could drive them. But they still had a use for supply chains, and that's what the EDF used them for. The pulling power of a tank with the driving ability of a car.

Beijing was one of the few places that people still called home. With the absence of any major government, the EDF was the de-facto world leader. But this wasn't by accident as the UN allowed for this to happen, understanding that a civilian government would complicate matters. There was also a caveat with this as well, that being once the war had ended new civilian governments as close to the original as possible.

The trucks stopped outside one of the cities warehouses with the occupants of the vehicles exited and began to take the crates out of the trucks. Agent Risa Aoi got out as well and made her way inside with a few of the soldiers. Unlike the regular soldiers, intel agents weren't expected to wear PA gear but were expected to carry a sidearm just in case. As she walked in one of the EDF commanders looked to her and saluted.

"Agent Aoi, it's good to see you again," he said as she saluted him.

"Same Capitan, but we need to harden the defences. They're on the move," she said matter-of-factly. "I need to speak to General Chang, the bastard has been stone walling me,"

The Capitan nodded. "How long until the attack?" he asked.

"Three days by estimates," Risa replied making the officer frown. "We need to tell the general," he muttered "Itami! Get your butt over here!" he yelled.

Yoji Itami ran over and saluted the Captain before his eyes fell on Risa. "Hi Ri," he smiled while just gave him a disapproving look.

"I told not to call me that until we are married," she said with a pout.

"Oh," the Captain smiled. "You two getting married,"

"Yep," Itami said with a shallow smile as he pulled his fiancée close to him. "She's my beautiful wife,"

"Keep holding me like this, and I'll add you to my next manga," Risa said making him pull away but she smiled.

The Captain did as well, a bit of teasing was to be expected. "I would ask how you to meet, but we need to make a move," he said and lead the two of them to a raven.

As they climbed inside, the Capitan flagged down one of the other officers. "Were off to HQ, he general may not be willing to commit resources. Pass it on to the other commanders, attack alert, three days,"

The officer nodded and made a moved while the Capitan climbed into the raven. As he closed the door, he looked to the two lovebirds.

"So… spill," he said.

"We…." Itami muttered. "We've known each other from school," he finally admitted as the raven moved.

"Same hobbies, interests…" Risa continued. "So, we decided to get married," she then lightly embowed him in the ribs. "So, he'd better take care of me,"

"Which I will, I promise," Itami insisted making the Capitan keep his smile.

"Sir," a voice called over the radio. "We have a problem, we got the word out, but the General has issued and order to stand down. He's also cut off contact with High Command,"

"Shit," the Capitan muttered. "Ok, get the rangers to HQ. I suspect there will a disagreement,"

"Understood sir," the three fell silent after that as the raven moved though the streets.

It didn't take long until they reached the Great Hall of the People. Originally China's Capitol building (Feel free to correct me), it had been taken up by EDF Asia command to coordinate operations in and around China. As the three climbed out, several more ravens arrived and unloaded their compliment of rangers. Several of whom nodded in Itami's direction, to which the Sargent nodded back as he pulled out his own ranger mark.

A blood red beret now sat on his head with an emblem of a skull crossed with anteater AR's behind it. The words: Oderint dum metuant, let them hate, so long as they fear, was placed under it. With that on, the rangers join the three armed with their anteaters. The guards let them in, but as soon as they entered red several red and black armoured troopers walked to them.

"Sir, the general has ordered not to allow anyone into HQ at this time," the lead trooper said.

Risa walked up to him pulling out her tablet and showing it to the officer. "Do you know what this is?" she asked as the officer took it.

"Troop movements for the aggressors," he said handing it back to her.

"Those movement indicate that they are heading this way," Risa informed, but the expression of the officer didn't change. "And the general has refused to mobilise, that is a dereliction of duty against humanity. Do you know the charge for such a crime?"

"Execution, sir," the officer responded. "However, I remain unconvinced that the aggressors are heading this way,"

"Do you really want to tell me, an intelligence officer, how to do my job?" as she spoke, she inched closer to the officer. "Are you sure you are telling me, that you do not see the troop movements of the aggressors on this pad?" she showed it to him again, but this time widened the view making it clear as to where the aggressors were heading. "Because if you don't, then you might lose more than just your rank," she didn't yell, but spoke in a clam tone with a very cold edge to it.

Itami shivered as he listened to her threaten an officer, bigger than she was. Despite the officer's calm attitude, it was clear how much he was sweating. Here was an intel officer, someone who could make your life a living hell backed up by rangers. One of the EDF's elite units, those were odds no one would wish on their worst enemy. The officer gulped before speaking in Chinese. The guards moved to the side letting the rangers and Risa though.

"Thank you," she smiled as she followed the others.

The way up to the command deck was short, but as soon as they entered the room, they were faced by the general as well as several more red and black armoured soldiers. But this time their weapons were aimed at them.

"Captain," the general smiled. "Stan down,"

"No," the Capitan said as the rangers readied their weapons. "Intel has…"

The general just cut him off by laughing. "What, you listened to this Japanese whore?" he asked. "She's lying. If we were to put this city on attack alert, then Highcom will move forces from Japan to reinforce us. And once the war is over, China will no longer be a nation of its own. It will be a Japanese puppet," his eyes then focused. "Like how China is currently the puppet of the EDF,"

"That's no…" Risa tried to say, but the general cut her off.

"Don't you dare say it's not true!" he yelled. "Our once proud nation has ceded power to the EDF like a submissive whore. We will defend this land with nothing but Chinese blood and tears, not from damned foreigners like yourselves!"

Risa's eyes narrowed. "Have you been feeling well general?" she asked calmy.

He looked at her with venom. "You don't have the right to ask me that!"

"Then you shouldn't mind this," she said as she pulled out her phone and pressed something.

All of a sudden, the general began to cover his ears and yelled in pain shocking his own men. "SHUT IT OFF! I COMMAND YOU, SHUT IT OFF!"

"Thought as much," she said as she pulled out her pistol and fired.

The round hit the general in the heart, killing him instantly. The confused guards looked to one another unsure of what to do as the rangers moved up and took their weapons. Risa moved up to the general's body with a knife and cut open his side. She then pushed her hand inside looking for something. A few of the newer rangers turned slightly green as she did. But it didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for and pulled it out.

"Here we are," she said holding up what appeared to be a woodlouse.

The bug fit the shape of her hand with ease and had a red colouring to it. It didn't have legs but instead tentacles, most of which were torn off.

"The general was an infiltrator," she said as she crushed, he bugs with her hand. "They've been popping up recently within isolated cities," she wiped her hand on her uniform. "They react to high frequency sounds. Harmless to humans, but they play havoc with aggressor ears,"

"Then why don't we use it all the time," Itami asked.

"Because other animals hear it, and it makes them go crazy. Cat's, dogs…" she muttered. "We want people to have as normal a life as possible while this war ranges,"

"Good to know," the Capitan said before looking at the Chinese guards. "We need to establish contact with Highcom, help us with the upcoming attack, and I'll ignore this little incident,"

The men nodded and began to move across the room, reconnecting to highcom. But as they did the general stood and grabbed Risa by the neck.

"No one move or I'll pop this whore's head," he yelled as guns aimed at him.

"H….howww…." Risa choaked.

"The aggressors made me a deal, let them into Bejing and they'll ignore the rest of China. Allowing me to rebuild as I see fit," he slowly squeezed her neck. "This nation only belongs to the Chinese, not your imperial invaders!"

The rangers couldn't fire, less they hit Risa. Itami, however just moved on pure instinct and charged in. Due to the momentum od his PA gear, he managed to not only knock the general down but push him so far that he slammed the general into the wall breaking all his bones and crushing his organs. That killed him, but the Sargent was more focused on his future wife as he ran up to Risa who was still coughing.

"You ok?" he asked helping her up.

But she responded by pulling him close and locking lips with him.

OOOOO Present day.

Pina and the other guests just stared at Risa as she looked up at the ceiling. "The battle went fine after that, but it showed me what kind of man he was. Caring compassionate…" she trailed off. "More then I deserved. He maybe an oktau, and that's the main thing in his life, but deep down there's always something more to him then a lazy manga fan,"

"Sounds like you loved him," Rory said.

"I did, and a part of me still does," she admitted. "But it's not the same love as one might share for a husband. A friend yes, but not a husband,"

"Why did the two of you break up?" Leiei asked.

"Well, it was mutual. After Ginza, Yoji just felt like I could do better then him," Risa smiled. "I didn't fully agree but it was what was best for both of us,"

Before anyone else could speak, something smashed though the glass and a green gas quickly came out.

"EVERY…." Risa tried to say but she fell asleep in the hot spring as four masked men entered.

"Grab the princess, intel officer and elf!" one of them ordered.

The other three followed as they grabbed their intended targets.

"STOP HERE!" Itami yelled as he and Davies pulled up their SMG's.

But they didn't fire in fear of hitting one of the hostages. But the only man who was armed fired his shotgun making the two move back before running with the others.

"The others," Itami muttered as he ran into the hot spring and pulled the others out of the water before they drowned.

As they did, the sound of an vehicle took off met their ears.

"Damn it, get in contact with HQ," Itami said. "We have a hostage situration,"


End file.
